faceless
Americanadjective
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without a face.
a faceless apparition.
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lacking personal distinction or identity.
a faceless mob.
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unidentified or unidentifiable; concealing one's identity.
a faceless kidnapper.
adjective
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without a face
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without identity; anonymous
Other Word Forms
- facelessness noun
Etymology
Origin of faceless
Explanation
Use the adjective faceless to mean impersonal or anonymous. The corrupt owner of a factory sees his employees as faceless worker bees. The enormous audience in a concert arena appears faceless to the rock band on stage. You also might think of the people who make the laws that affect you every day as nothing but faceless bureaucrats. When there's nothing distinct about a person or group, something that makes them stand out as a unique individual, they're faceless. It's also a good way to describe anything lacking character or interest, like a faceless row of identical suburban houses.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His latest show, “Liminals,” opened last week in a former power plant in Berlin and includes a film of a faceless person navigating mysterious voids.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 28, 2026
The room where they meet is a simple space in a faceless hospital but in the corner, there's a pile of boardgames on a chair.
From BBC • Dec. 12, 2025
Take the strange, faceless building at Melrose and Sycamore avenues, just up from the house where I grew up.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2025
A baby Jesus has been stolen from a Christmas nativity scene in Brussels which sparked an online furore over its faceless depictions of Christianity's holy family.
From Barron's • Dec. 2, 2025
A towering cliff stood behind them, a sheer drop, black and faceless.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
