placebo

[ pluh-see-boh for 1; plah-chey-boh for 2 ]

/ pləˈsi boʊ for 1; plɑˈtʃeɪ boʊ for 2 /

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See synonyms for placebo on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural pla·ce·bos, pla·ce·boes.

Medicine/Medical, Pharmacology.

a substance having no pharmacological effect but given merely to satisfy a patient who supposes it to be a medicine.
a substance having no pharmacological effect but administered as a control in testing experimentally or clinically the efficacy of a biologically active preparation.

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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Origin of placebo

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

Words nearby placebo

placas, placate, placative, placatory, place, placebo, placebo effect, place card, placeholder, place in the sun, place kick

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use placebo in a sentence

Proof of efficacy requires controlled studies in which some patients get plasma and others get a placebo.
The US just approved the use of plasma from covid-19 survivors as a treatment|Antonio Regalado|August 24, 2020|MIT Technology Review
If members of the placebo group contract covid-19 and members of the vaccinated group don’t, that indicates success.
Tackling covid|Tate Ryan-Mosley|August 19, 2020|MIT Technology Review
They vaccinated volunteers and then, 24 hours later, gave them either the experimental antibody drug or a placebo.
New antibodies in just months|Katie McLean|August 19, 2020|MIT Technology Review
A large number of people are given either the vaccine or a placebo and then sent back to live their lives, assuming that some of them, at some point, will be exposed to the virus.
Some Volunteers Want To Be Infected With Coronavirus To Help Find A Vaccine. But It Isn’t That Simple.|Kaleigh Rogers (kaleigh.rogers@fivethirtyeight.com)|August 6, 2020|FiveThirtyEight

Mice treated with a placebo drug or Brd4 inhibitor alone fared worse.
These cells slow an immune response. Derailing them could help fight tumors|Esther Landhuis|July 10, 2020|Science News
There is some scientific merit to some alternative modalities, such as the well-documented placebo effect.
Why Smart People Are Dumb Patients|Jean Kim|July 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After the surgery he discovered that he had simply drunk fruit juice with added sugar and he had been given a placebo.
The Week in Death: Alexander Shulgrin, Who Synthesized the Drug Ecstasy|The Telegraph|June 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Nobody conceived of a thing like the placebo effect or researcher bias —none of these notions had been worked out yet.
Following Tuberculosis From Death Sentence to Cure|Tessa Miller|April 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Those who had received the actual drug reported better levels of self-satisfaction than the unfortunates who just got the placebo.
Kythera Helps You Melt Your Double Chin, No Diet or Surgery Required|Daniel Gross|September 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The second is the placebo effect, which will often cause anything presented as medication to “work.”
America’s Epidemic of Psychiatric Over-Diagnosis|Jesse Singal|June 21, 2013|DAILY BEAST
It is a milder form of this same method to give what the learned faculty term a placebo.
The Humbugs of the World|P. T. Barnum
We are interested in what makes the placebo act as effectively as the true medication.
A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis|Melvin Powers
This is a last phase of the metaphysical polity, and is only a kind of placebo.
The World's Greatest Books--Volume 14--Philosophy and Economics|Various
Hence the complacent brother in the Marchant's Tale is called Placebo.'
Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 (of 7) -- Notes to the Canterbury Tales|Geoffrey Chaucer
We'll call this the placebo criticism and will come back to it, too, in a moment.
When You Don't Know Where to Turn|Steven J. Bartlett

British Dictionary definitions for placebo

placebo

/ (pləˈsiːbəʊ) /

noun plural -bos or -boes

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 treatmentSee also control group, placebo effect

something said or done to please or humour another

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

Word Origin for placebo

C13 (in the ecclesiastical sense): from Latin Placebo Domino I shall please the Lord (from the opening of the office for the dead); C19 (in the medical sense)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for placebo

placebo

[ plə-sē′bō ]

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.

Cultural definitions for placebo

placebo

[ (pluh-see-boh) ]

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

notes for placebo

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