Meaning & use
face
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Meanings
nouncountable
The front of the head, including the eyes, nose and mouth.
Grammar: Countable: a friendly face.
Patterns
- in your face
She had a big smile on her face.
He washed his face in the cold water.
A familiar face appeared in the crowd.
nouncountable
The expression on someone's face.
Grammar: Often used with make or pull: make a face.
Patterns
- make a face
- pull a face
The child made a face at the soup.
She pulled a sad face.
His face fell when he heard the news.
nouncountable
A flat side or surface of something, such as a cliff, coin or clock.
Grammar: Used for one surface of an object.
Patterns
- the north face of something
Climbers tackled the north face of the mountain.
The clock face was cracked.
The cube has six faces.
noununcountablefigurative
A person's reputation or public image, or dignity in the eyes of others.
Grammar: Used in idioms such as lose face and save face.
Patterns
- lose face
- save face
He did not want to lose face in front of his team.
She agreed to save face for the company.
The apology helped him save face.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To have your front or eyes pointed toward something.
Grammar: Takes an object or a direction: the house faces south.
Patterns
- face something
- face toward something
The hotel faces the sea.
Please face the front of the class.
The windows face south.
verbtransitive
To deal with a difficult situation or person directly and not avoid it.
Grammar: Takes an object: face the truth, face a challenge.
Patterns
- face a problem
- face up to something
She had to face her fears before the speech.
The company faces serious financial problems.
He faced the truth about his mistakes.
Word forms
| plural | faces |
|---|---|
| third person singular | faces |
| past tense | faced |
| past participle | faced |
| -ing form | facing |
Common combinations
- face to face
- They finally met face to face.
- lose face
- He did not want to lose face.
- face the music
- She had to face the music after the mistake.
- face a challenge
- The team faces a tough challenge.
- save face
- He told a lie to save face.
- face value
- Do not take the offer at face value.
Synonyms and how they differ
- confront
- Confront is stronger than face and suggests a direct challenge or conflict.
- visage
- Visage is a literary word for someone's face.
- countenance
- Countenance is formal and often describes expression.
- encounter
- Encounter means to meet something, often unexpectedly, and not necessarily deal with it.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: face or phase?
face vs phase
Phase is a stage in a process and sounds similar to face, but is spelled differently.
Practice
In which sentence does face mean to deal with a problem directly?
Choose one answer.
Only the second sentence means to confront and deal with something. The others use face for direction, the body part and a surface.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “face”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.