The two-dimensional motion of a freely falling circular cylinder in an infinite fluid is investigated numerically using combined formulation. The effect of vortex shedding on the motion of a freely falling cylinder is clearly seen: as the streamwise velocity of the cylinder increases due to gravity, the periodic vortex shedding induces a periodic motion of the cylinder. This motion in turn affects the flow field, which is manifested by the generation of the angular velocity vector of the cylinder parallel to the cross product of the gravitational acceleration vector and the transverse velocity vector of the cylinder. A correlation of St-Re relationship for a freely falling circular cylinder is drawn from the present results. The Strouhal number for a freely falling circular cylinder is found to be smaller than that for a fixed circular cylinder when the two Reynolds numbers based on the streamwise terminal velocity of a freely failing circular cylinder and the free stream velocity of a fixed one are the same. From "thought experiments", it is shown that the transverse motion of the cylinder plays a crucial role in reducing the Strouhal number and has an effect of reducing the Reynolds number from the viewpoint of the pressure coefficient. The mechanism of this reduction in the Strouhal number is revealed by the fact that the freely falling cylinder experiences a smaller lift force than the fixed one due to the transverse motion resulting in the retardation of the vortex shedding.