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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

facepalm.

A gesture of bringing one or both palms to the face, with various interpretations including exasperation, chagrin, frustration, embarrassment (one's own or vicarious), etc.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfeɪsˌpɑː(l)m/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfeɪsˌpɑ(l)m/General-American
  1. A gesture of bringing one or both palms to the face, with various interpretations including exasperation, chagrin, frustration, embarrassment (one's own or vicarious), etc.

Where this word comes from

From face + palm. Attested since at least 2001.

verb/ˈfeɪsˌpɑː(l)m/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfeɪsˌpɑ(l)m/General-American
  1. To bring the palm of one’s hand to one’s face as an expression of mixed humor and disbelief, disgust or shame; for example, when one is caught off-guard with a particularly bad pun.

  2. To bring one’s face down to one’s cupped hand or hands.

Where this word comes from

From face + palm. Attested since at least 2001.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.