What does down mean?
Down is one of the most versatile words in English, functioning primarily as an adverb and preposition to indicate movement or position at a lower point — she climbed down the ladder, prices fell down sharply. It also works as an adjective describing sadness ('feeling down') or malfunctioning equipment ('the server is down'), as a noun referring to soft bird feathers or grassy upland hills, and as a verb meaning to swallow quickly or bring something to the ground. Its figurative uses are rich: emotions sink down, fortunes go down, machines go down. Derived compounds like downfall, downhill, downstairs, and downside extend its range further. Rooted in Old English with surprising origins tied to the word for 'hill,' down is essential for expressing direction, decline, and state across nearly every register of spoken and written English.
Toward or in a lower place or position.
"The children ran down to the beach."
Along or into a lower part of a route, slope, or passage.
"They strolled down the lane toward the village."
Sad, depressed, or not working properly.
"The website was down for most of the afternoon."
Fine soft feathers, or an area of open grassy upland.
"The pillow was stuffed with goose down."
The feather sense is uncountable; the upland sense is usually plural ('the Downs') in British place names.
As a countable noun, 'downs' typically refers to areas of rolling grassy upland, especially in southern England (e.g. the South Downs). The uncountable feather sense has no standard plural.
"We spent the weekend walking across the chalk downs of Wiltshire."
The word 'down' originally meant 'hill' — so saying you went 'down' literally meant going 'off the hill' in Old English.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of down
Down derives from Old English 'dūn,' which originally meant 'hill' or 'moorland,' coming from Proto-Germanic '*dūnaz.' The modern directional sense evolved from the Middle English phrase 'of dūne,' meaning 'off the hill,' which gradually fused into a single word expressing downward motion. Cognates appear in Dutch 'duin' and German 'Düne,' both meaning 'dune' or 'sand hill,' preserving the original geographic sense that survives in English place names such as the Sussex Downs.
Related word forms
How down is actually used
Down is highly polysemous, functioning as an adverb, preposition, adjective, noun, and verb. In informal speech it often appears as a phrasal verb element (e.g. calm down, break down). The adjective sense meaning 'sad or depressed' is informal. In British English, 'down' can also mean 'away from a university or city center,' while in American English it sometimes means 'along or further along a road.'
Easily confused with down
Dawn refers to the first light of morning, while down indicates a lower direction or position.
Done means completed, whereas down describes movement toward a lower position or state.