face down

adjective or adverb

variants or less commonly face-down

ˌfās-ˈdau̇n 

or facedown

: with the face down

He was face down on the bed. = He was lying face down on the bed.

Two cards are dealt face down to each player, then the first round of bets is made.

—Thomas L. Clark

… she walked past us to the lab area, placed the paper face down on the table and looked back at us.

—David Kwiatkowski

… stood up so fast he knocked his plate of waffles facedown onto the floor.

—Ingrid Law

—usually hyphenated before a noun

… an alternate paper path has been added to turn out face-down copies in proper order, so they don't have to be collated manually.

—William J. Lynott

Examples of face down in a Sentence

The cards were dealt facedown.

He fell facedown in the sand.

Recent Examples on the Web

Emii was found face down inside the bathtub, which was filled with bloody water, investigators say. — Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 24 June 2026

The point isn’t the game itself so much as the hours spent across a table from someone, phones face down, actually paying attention. — Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 24 June 2026

The sculptures were discovered lying face down in an in an empty Roman-Byzantine wine collection vat. — Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 16 June 2026

Simmons told the deputy that Nancy was lying on their kitchen floor, where the deputy ultimately found her face down in a pool of blood, according to the affidavit. — Janelle Griffith, PEOPLE, 12 June 2026

Investigators allege that Yang had been left face down on a pullout couch for at least 15 hours. — Jazmin Alvarado, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026

Place the blade or blades back on the mower, making sure sharp edges face down toward the lawn. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 8 June 2026

Deputy Gourley quickly located the victim in the water floating face down and pulled her to shore. — Alex Nitzberg, FOXNews.com, 8 June 2026

Motiwalla was found shot to death, lying face down in the parking lot of an office building at 350 Camino Gardens Blvd. — Angie Dimichele, Sun Sentinel, 8 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for face down

• chinatown
• tumbledown
• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown

Kids Definition

facedown

adverb

face·​down ˈfās-ˈdau̇n 

: with the face down

floated facedown