Word.ws English Dictionary

placebic

placebic adjective: functioning as a placebo.

Adjective

placebic (comparative more placebic, superlative most placebic)

  1. Functioning as a placebo.
    • In the request-only condition, the experimenter said simply 'Excuse me, I have 5 (20) copies. May I use the xerox machine?' In the placebic information condition, this was followed by the phrase 'because I need to make copies'. In the real information condition, the reason offered in support was...1986, J. Richard Eiser, Social psychology: attitude, cognition, and social behavior, page 227
    • Many millions of dollars are expended on drugs, diagnostic tests, and psychotherapies of a placebic nature.2005, Michael Palmer, Moral Problems in Medicine, page 135

Examples of placebic in a sentence

  • May I use the xerox machine?' In the placebic information condition, this was followed by the phrase 'because I need to make copies'.1986, J. Richard Eiser, Social psychology: attitude, cognition, and social behavior, page 227:
  • He could invent a fictional restaurant for you to bite your burger at but any fictional restaurant would be, like Nomenex, a worthless simulant or inconcinne imitation, a placebic generic.2012, Joshua Cohen, Four New Messages:

Forms of placebic

comparativemore placebic
superlativemost placebic

Origin of placebic

From placebo + -ic.

Questions about placebic

What does placebic mean?
Placebic means functioning as a placebo.
How do you use placebic in a sentence?
May I use the xerox machine?' In the placebic information condition, this was followed by the phrase 'because I need to make copies'.
What part of speech is placebic?
Placebic is an adjective.

Words near placebic in the dictionary

  1. place-names
  2. placeabilities
  3. placeability
  4. placeable
  5. placeables
  6. placebic
  7. placeblog
  8. placeblogs
  9. placebo
  10. placebo button
  11. placebo buttons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: placebic (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “placebic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/placebic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.