placebo
/pləˈsiː.bəʊ/US/pləˈsi.boʊ/
placebo noun: a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment.
Noun
placebo (plural placebos or placeboes)
- A dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment.
- The acid test, I thought, was whether homeopathic remedies behave differently from placebos when submitted to clinical trials.2010 February 22, Edzard Ernst, “No to homeopathy placebo”, in The Guardian
- The trials overall showed some but limited effectiveness, and in one of the largest and longest trials, the placebo performed better in treating spasticity, pain and bladder dysfunction, Dr. Bowling wrote.2021 March 8, Jane E. Brody, “Medical Marijuana Is Not Regulated as Most Medicines Are”, in The New York Times
- The vespers sung in the office for the dead.
- There the placebo, the office for the dead, was sung, and a vigil kept throughout the night.2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 349
placebo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
placebo in Hindi
- a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment
- कूटभेषज kūṭbheṣaj
placebo in Tamil
- a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment
- மருந்துப்போலி maruntuppōli
placebo in Marathi
- प्लेसबो, प्लेसिबो, प्लेसीबो
placebo in Urdu
- پلیسبو, پلاسیبو
More languagesFewer languages
- placebo in Bengali
- প্লেসবো, প্লেসিবো
- placebo in Telugu
- ప్లసీబో, ప్లాసిబో
- placebo in Malayalam
- പ്ലേസിബോ, പ്ലസീബോ, പ്ലാസിബോ
- placebo in Kannada
- ಪ್ಲಸೀಬೊ, ಪ್ಲೇಸ್ಬೊ
- placebo in Punjabi
- ਪਲੇਸਬੋ, ਪਲੇਸੀਬੋ, ਪਲੇਸਿਬੋ
- placebo in Gujarati
- પ્લેસબો, પ્લાસિબો, પ્લેસિબો
- placebo in Odia
- ପ୍ଲେସବୋ, ପ୍ଲେସିବୋ
- placebo in Nepali
- प्लेसबो, प्लेसिबो, प्लेसीबो
- placebo in Thai
- ยาหลอก
Examples of placebo in a sentence
- This drug cannot be used therapeutically except as a placebo.
- Knowingly giving a person a placebo when there is an effective treatment available is a bioethically complex issue.
- What would happen if we gave patients a placebo—and told them it was a placebo?
Forms of placebo
| plural | placebos |
|---|---|
| plural | placeboes |
Origin of placebo
Inherited from Middle English placebo, borrowed from Latin placēbō (“I will please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“to please”).
Words formed from placebo
Phrases with placebo
Words that rhyme with placebo
Questions about placebo
- What does placebo mean?
- Placebo means a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment.
- What is placebo in Hindi?
- Placebo in Hindi is कूटभेषज (kūṭbheṣaj). See Placebo meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is placebo?
- Placebo is a noun.
- How do you pronounce placebo?
- Placebo is pronounced /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of placebo?
- The plural of placebo is placebos.
Words near placebo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: placebo (page history and authors); placebo (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); placebo (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-placebo.wav.
Cite this entry: “placebo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/placebo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.