From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe face of somethingthe face of somethinga) SEEMthe 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) APPEARANCEthe general appearance of a particular place the changing face of the landscape → face
Examples from the Corpus
the face of something• The M-forty extension through fifty nine miles of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire has changed the face of the countryside.• It's a new book about the changing face of the suburbs.• One is already the face of the other.• Roosevelt's bold policies changed the face of the nation.• All of this construction took place, of course, in the face of the most severe weather conditions imaginable.• In the face of the real danger to the boys in combat, everything at home seemed temporary.• This explains the neutral look on the faces of people in the streets.• It simply has more earthquakes than any other place on the face of the globe.• I wish you could have seen the faces of the jury as the awful specter of the future unfolded before them.• She had seen too many ghost skulls, and all under the faces of people who were now dead. 