face

face

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of face in English

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 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)
      2. Public image; outward appearance.
        Synonyms: image, public image, reputation
      3. Good reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige.
        lose face
        save face
      4. 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.
      5. An aspect of the character or nature of someone or something.
      6. (figurative) Presence; sight; front.
      8. (metonymically) A person; the self; (reflexively, objectifying) oneself.
        Coordinate term: ass (see ass § Usage notes)
      9. (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

    See also

    • 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 conjugation

        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

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        Related Words

        surfaces

        surface

        interfaces

        interface

        faces

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        This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.