Learn English – be the face of something

expressionsmeaningphrases

be the face of something: to represent the nature or character of an organization, industry, system etc, and the way it appears to people

This is the sense I came to using the Longman definition. However, “represent” is not part of the definition. So I want to make sure I got it right.

What is the definition of this phrase? I have tried to look it up in numerous dictionaries, but I can't find it as a phrase.

For example in the title of this article: Should You Be the Face of Your Business?

Or as in: He was the face of popular music.

Best Answer

To be the face of something is to be the feature, embodiment or recognised representation of the thing. It can apply to a person (e.g. J.R.'s comment of Steve Jobs as the face of Apple), or even to a concept, as shown in the example given in the following definition:

the face of sth

what you can see of something or what shows:
Poor quality is the unacceptable face of increased productivity.

[Source: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus]

Longman provides a similar definition:

the face of something

a) the nature or character of an organization, industry, system etc, and the way it appears to people

  • technology that has changed the face of society

  • Is this the new face of the Tory party?

    the ugly/unacceptable/acceptable face of something (= the qualities of an organization, industry etc which people find unacceptable or acceptable)

  • the unacceptable face of capitalism

b) the general appearance of a particular place

  • the changing face of the landscape

[Source: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online]

Note that this usage is not quite an idiom, since "face" itself has the following as one of its defined meanings:

face

  1. a (1) : outward appearance
    put a good face on it

    a (2) : the aspect of something that is perceptible or obvious upon superficial examination
    the theory is absurd on its face — Kim Neely

[Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary]

The origins of the word suggest that its application in the above usages may not be figurative but, rather, that the specific application to the human countenance is only one facet (pun intended) of the broader meaning of "face". From etymonline:

Words for "face" in Indo-European commonly are based on the notion of "appearance, look," and are mostly derivatives from verbs for "to see, look" (as with the Old English words, Greek prosopon, literally "toward-look," Lithuanian veidas, from root *weid- "to see," etc.). But in some cases, as here, the word for "face" means "form, shape." In French, the use of face for "front of the head" was given up 17c. and replaced by visage (older vis), from Latin visus "sight."

From late 14c. as "outward appearance (as contrasted to some other reality);" also from late 14c. as "forward part or front of anything;" also "surface (of the earth or sea), extent (of a city)."

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