fall on one's face
"fall-on-one-s-face" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fall on one's face” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To fail, especially in a dramatic or particularly decisive manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fall-on-one-s-face · fall on one's face · English
fall on one's face · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fall on one's face |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fall on one's face” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fall on one's face is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To fail, especially in a dramatic or particularly decisive manner.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for fall on one's face, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is fall on one's face, spelled F-A-L-L- -O-N- -O-N-E-'-S- -F-A-C-E.
Definition
- 1To fail, especially in a dramatic or particularly decisive manner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fall on one's face appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Judge Charles R. Richey last week tried to apply some firm rules of law to such indelicate situations. He came close to succeeding, then fell on his face.
But defense lawyers have compared the case to a "trashy novel" in which the Government presented plenty of gossip, hearsay and innuendo but little credible evidence. . . . "I think the Government fell on their face," said Michael Critchley.
Antonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.