face

English Online Dictionary. What means face‎? What does face mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English face, from Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“form, appearance”). Doublet of facies. Displaced native Displaced Middle English onlete (“face, countenance, appearance”), anleth (“face”), from Old English anwlite, andwlita, compare German Antlitz; Old English ansīen (“face”), Middle English neb (“face, nose”) (from Old English nebb), Middle English ler, leor, leer (“face, cheek, countenance”) (from Old English hlēor), and non-native Middle English vis (“face, appearance, look”) (from Old French vis) and Middle English chere (“face”) from Old French chere.

In the sense of face as in reputation, influenced by Chinese 面子 (miànzi) or 臉／脸 (liǎn), both of which mean literally the front of the head and metaphorically one's public image. See lose face.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: fās, IPA^(key): /feɪs/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /fɛjs/
• (Fiji) IPA^(key): /feːs/
• Rhymes: -eɪs

Noun

face (plural faces)

2. (anatomy) The front part of the head of a human or other animal, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the surrounding area.

   Synonyms: dial, mug, mush, (obsolete) phiz, (obsolete) phizog, punim, visage, pan; see also Thesaurus:countenance
3. (informal or slang)
   1. One's facial expression.

      Synonyms: countenance, expression, facial expression, look, visage; see also Thesaurus:facial expression, Thesaurus:countenance

   2. (in expressions such as 'make a face') A distorted facial expression; an expression of displeasure, insult, etc.

   3. (informal) The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value.
   4. (professional wrestling, slang) A headlining wrestler with a persona embodying heroic or virtuous traits and who is regarded as a "good guy", especially one who is handsome and well-conditioned; a baby face.

      Synonyms: good guy, hero

      Antonym: heel

   5. (slang) The mouth.

      Synonyms: cakehole, gob, piehole, trap; see also Thesaurus:mouth

   6. (slang) Makeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application.

4. (figurative)
   1. Public image; outward appearance.

      Synonyms: image, public image, reputation
   2. Good reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige.

      lose face

      save face

   3. Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery.
      • a. 1694, John Tillotson, Preface to The Works

        This is the man that has the face to charge others with false citations.

   4. An aspect of the character or nature of someone or something.

   5. (figurative) Presence; sight; front.
   7. (metonymically) A person; the self; (reflexively, objectifying) oneself.

      Coordinate term: ass (see ass § Usage notes)

   8. (informal) A familiar or well-known person; a member of a particular scene, such as the music or fashion scene.
5. The frontal aspect of something.

   Synonym: foreside

   1. The numbered dial of a clock or watch; the clock face.
6. The directed force of something.

7. Any surface, especially a front or outer one.
8. (geometry) Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron; more generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.

   Synonyms: (different specialised meaning in mathematical use) facet, (not in mathematical use) surface

9. (cricket) The front surface of a bat.
10. (golf) The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
11. (heraldry) The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
12. (card games) The side of the card that shows its value (as opposed to the back side, which looks the same on all cards of the deck).
13. (video games, TCGs, uncountable) The player character, especially as opposed to minions or other entities which might absorb damage instead of the player character.

14. (mechanics) The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.

15. (mining) The exposed surface of the mineral deposit where it is being mined. Also the exposed end surface of a tunnel where digging may still be in progress.
16. (typography) A typeface.
17. A mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Danish: fjæs
• → Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fjes
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: fjes
• → Swedish: fejs, fjäs
• → Wu: 番斯 (¹fe-sy)

Translations

Verb

face (third-person singular simple present faces, present participle facing, simple past and past participle faced)

1. (transitive, of a person or animal) To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).
2. (transitive, of an object) To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).
3. (transitive) To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.
4. (transitive, retail) To improve the display of stock by ensuring items aren't upside down or back to front and are pulled forwards.

5. (transitive) To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect.
6. (transitive) To deal with (a difficult situation or person); to accept (facts, reality, etc.) even when undesirable.
7. (intransitive) To have the front in a certain direction.

8. (transitive) To have as an opponent.
9. (intransitive, cricket) To be the batsman on strike.

10. (transitive, obsolete) To confront impudently; to bully.
11. (transitive) To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.
12. (transitive) To line near the edge, especially with a different material.

13. To cover with better, or better appearing, material than the mass consists of, for purpose of deception, as the surface of a box of tea, a barrel of sugar, etc.
15. (engineering) To make the surface of (anything) flat or smooth; to dress the face of (a stone, a casting, etc.); especially, in turning, to shape or smooth the flat (transverse) surface of, as distinguished from the cylindrical (axial) surface.

    Hyponym: spotface

Synonyms

• (position oneself/itself towards):
• (have its front closest to):
• (deal with): confront, deal with

Derived terms

• in-your-face

Related terms

Translations

See also

• Face on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (geometry) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (hieroglyph) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (mining) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (sociological concept) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• face on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• MathWorld article on geometrical faces
• Faces in programming
• JavaServer Faces
• Category:face on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• CAFE, cafe, café, ecaf

Afar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faˈħe/ [fʌˈħɛ]
• Hyphenation: fa‧ce

Verb

facé (causative facisé)

1. (intransitive) boil
2. (intransitive) ferment

Conjugation

References

• E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “face”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[7], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis), page 280

Chinese

Alternative forms

• 飛士／飞士, 飛屎／飞屎

Etymology

From English face.

Pronunciation

Noun

face

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) face (reputation; dignity)

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

Finnish

Alternative forms

• Face

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɑse/, [ˈfɑ̝s̠e̞]
• Rhymes: -ɑse
• Hyphenation^(key): fa‧ce

Proper noun

face (informal)

1. Clipping of Facebook.

Usage notes

• Facebook is generally pronounced approximately following the English pronunciation (/feispu:k/), while this term is not.

Declension

Related terms

• insta

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French and Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“face, shape”). Doublet of faciès.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fas/
• Homophones: faces, fasce, fasse, fassent, fasses
• Rhymes: -as

Noun

face f (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face
2. surface, side
3. (geometry) face
4. head (of a coin)

Derived terms

See also

• aspect
• figure
• surface
• tête
• visage

Further reading

• “face”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• café

Friulian

Etymology

From Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“face, shape”).

Noun

face f (plural facis)

1. facePrologue

Interlingua

Verb

face

1. present of facer
2. imperative of facer

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -atʃe
• Hyphenation: fà‧ce

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin facem (“torch, firebrand”).

Noun

face f (plural faci)

1. (poetic) torch

   Synonyms: fiaccola, torcia
2. (poetic, by extension) light

   Synonyms: luce, lume, splendore

Related terms

Further reading

• face in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

face

1. (archaic, poetic) Alternative form of fa, third-person singular present indicative of fare

Latin

Noun

face

1. ablative singular of fax

Verb

face

1. second-person singular present imperative active of faciō

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaː.s(ə)/

Noun

face (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face

   Synonyms: cheer, visage

Descendants

• English: face (see there for further descendants)
• Geordie English: fyece
• Scots: face
• Yola: faace

References

• “fāce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

face

1. Alternative form of fass

Old French

Alternative forms

• fache (northern)

Etymology

From Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“face, shape”).

Noun

face oblique singular, f (oblique plural faces, nominative singular face, nominative plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face

Synonyms

• vis (more common)
• visage
• volt

Descendants

• Middle French: face
  • French: face
• Norman: fache, fach (Sark)
• → Middle English: face (see there for further descendants)

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese façe, faz, from Latin faciēs. Doublet of fácies.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: fa‧ce

Noun

face f (plural faces)

1. (anatomy, geometry) face

   Synonyms: cara, rosto

2. (anatomy) the cheek

   Synonym: bochecha

References

• “façe” in Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval.

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin facere. The original past participle fapt (< Latin factus) has been replaced by an analogical form. An alternative third-person simple perfect, fece (< Latin fēcit) was also found in some dialects. The sense of “to cost” is likely a loan translation of Greek κάνω (káno).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfat͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -at͡ʃe
• Hyphenation: fa‧ce

Verb

a face (third-person singular present face, past participle făcut) 3rd conj.

1. (transitive) to do, act

   Fă ce vrei. ― Do what you want.

2. (transitive) to make (construct, build, prepare, create, transform)

   Mama face mâncare. ― Mother is making food.

3. (transitive) to cause someone to do something

   O să te fac să-ți pese. ― I’ll make you care.

4. (transitive) to make (render a certain way, turn into)

5. (transitive, potentially childish) give birth to someone

6. (transitive) to develop a disease or certain physical features
7. (transitive, colloquial) call names
8. (transitive) to cover a certain distance
9. (transitive, informal) to become a certain age
10. (transitive) to turn one’s path to a certain direction
11. (intransitive) to cost
12. (impersonal, uncommon) to be advantageous, worth it to do something
13. (intransitive) to imitate or pretend to be something else, mockingly, deceitfully or humorously [with pe]
14. (reflexive) to pretend
15. (reflexive) to become or turn into
16. (reflexive) to become (adopt a career or path in life)
17. (reflexive, idiomatic, colloquial) to acquire, get hold of something on short notice
18. (reflexive, colloquial, chiefly imperative, somewhat rude) to come over immediately, get over here
19. (reflexive, with ce in direct or indirect questions) to deal with a situation
20. (reflexive) Introduces a narrative of a vision or a dream.
21. (reflexive, with dative, of feelings or sensations) to arise, get hold of somebody
22. (reflexive, impersonal) to get (become, change state)

    Se face târziu. ― It’s getting late.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• avea a face
• afacere
• cum se face
• desface
• face cu mâna
• face dragoste
• facere
• făcător
• preface
• reface
• tăcea și face

Related terms

• fapt

References

• face in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈfaθe/ [ˈfa.θe]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /ˈfase/ [ˈfa.se]
• Rhymes: -aθe
• Rhymes: -ase
• Syllabification: fa‧ce

Verb

face

1. third-person singular present indicative of facer