noun

la cara

face · side

Es la parte delantera de la cabeza donde están los ojos, la nariz y la boca.

Definition & meaning

Cara has several meanings, depending on its grammatical category and context:

Face — the front part of a person’s or animal’s head.
- Tiene la cara cansada. — “He/She has a tired face.”
- It can also refer to someone’s facial expression or appearance: Pon buena cara means “Put on a pleasant expression.”
Side, surface, or face of an object — one of the surfaces or aspects of something.
- La cara de una moneda — “the face of a coin”
- La cara norte de la montaña — “the northern face of the mountain”
Heads in the expression cara o cruz — the “heads” side of a coin.
- Cara o cruz — “heads or tails”
Expensive — the feminine singular form of the adjective caro .
- La casa es muy cara. — “The house is very expensive.”
- Una entrada cara — “an expensive ticket”
Cheeky, shameless, or brazen in some expressions, especially tener cara or qué cara.
- ¡Qué cara tiene! — “What nerve!” or “How shameless he/she is!”

Grammar & Word origin

As a noun, cara is feminine: la cara, plural las caras.

As an adjective meaning “expensive,” cara is the feminine singular form of caro:

masculine singular: caro
feminine singular: cara
masculine plural: caros
feminine plural: caras

The noun cara, meaning “face,” comes through Latin from Greek kára, “head.” The adjective caro, meaning “expensive,” comes from Latin carus, meaning “dear” or “valuable.” These are separate words that happen to have the same written form in the feminine singular.

Synonyms & antonyms

“Face”

Synonyms include:

rostro — a more formal or literary word for “face”
faz — literary and less common
semblante — specifically someone’s facial appearance or expression

There is no exact general antonym for cara meaning “face.” In contexts involving the front and back of something, reverso or espalda may be used as an opposite, depending on the object.