placebo

American  

[pluh-see-boh, plah-chey-boh] / pləˈsi boʊ, plɑˈtʃeɪ boʊ /

noun

PLURAL

placebos, placeboes

1. Medicine/Medical, Pharmacology.

   1. a substance having no pharmacological effect but given merely to satisfy a patient who supposes it to be a medicine.

   2. a substance having no pharmacological effect but administered as a control in testing experimentally or clinically the efficacy of a biologically active preparation.

2. Roman Catholic Church. the vespers of the office for the dead: so called from the initial word of the first antiphon, taken from Psalm 114:9 of the Vulgate.

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placebo British  

/ pləˈsiːbəʊ /

noun

1. med an inactive substance or other sham form of therapy administered to a patient usually to compare its effects with those of a real drug or treatment, but sometimes for the psychological benefit to the patient through his believing he is receiving treatment See also control group placebo effect

2. something said or done to please or humour another

3. RC Church a traditional name for the vespers of the office for the dead

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placebo Scientific  

/ plə-sē′bō /

1. A substance containing no medication and prescribed to reinforce a patient's expectation of getting well or used as a control in a clinical research trial to determine the effectiveness of a potential new drug.

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placebo Cultural  

1. A substance containing no active drug, administered to a patient participating in a medical experiment as a control.

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Discover More

Those receiving a placebo often get better, a phenomenon known as the placebo effect.

Etymology

Origin of placebo

1175–1225 placebo for def. 2; 1775–85 placebo for def. 1; Middle English < Latin placēbō “I shall be pleasing, acceptable”

Example Sentences

Those who received the injectable version achieved statistically significant weight loss of up to 14.5% compared with 2.6% in people treated with a placebo.

From MarketWatch

The company said Monday that the ingredient, called semaglutide, wasn’t superior to a placebo in reducing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the studies.

From The Wall Street Journal

But the researchers found both types of antiamyloid drugs generally caused clinical trial participants to lose more brain volume than what was seen in Alzheimer’s patients on a placebo.

From Science Magazine

The F.D.A. found that a small fraction of people who took Paxlovid experienced a rebound, as did those who took a placebo.

From New York Times

Understanding this could help to boost the placebo effect, destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccination and even re-evaluate illnesses that, for centuries, have been dismissed as being psychologically driven, she says.

From Scientific American