placebo

[pluh-see-boh, plah-chey-boh]

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.

placebo

/ 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

placebo

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.

placebo

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of placebo¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of placebo¹

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)

Example Sentences

While the drugs don’t work for all people with major depression, analyses of multiple studies have consistently found them to be significantly better than placebos at alleviating illness symptoms.

From Los Angeles Times

With a demand that vaccine boosters be tested against placebos, RFK Jr. puts an old antivaccine claim at the forefront of government health policy.

From Los Angeles Times

Since taking office he has cut thousands of jobs in the health department and made plans to introduce placebo trials for all new vaccines.

From BBC

As early as 1999, Irving Kirsch, a lecturer at Harvard, began to explore the role of the placebo effect in antidepressant studies, asserting that the placebo response to medication was greater than any pharmacological effect.

From Salon

I suspect that none of the parents who volunteered for Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine trial were hoping their children were in the placebo group.

From Los Angeles Times