placebo
English · Français · Deutsch · Italiano · Português · Română · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
placebo
- /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/ UK
- /pləˈsi.boʊ/ Canada, US
- /pləˈsiː.bəʉ/ Australia
- /pləˈsiː.bɐʉ/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -iːbəʊ
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English placebo, borrowed from Latin placēbō (“I will please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“to please”).
noun placebos · 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.
- 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.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: sop, tell-tale, cream, palliative, efficacy, study, witness, fake drug, sugar pill, dummy pill, dummy drug, vehicle, antiplacebo, nonplacebo, placebo effect, placebo button
Translations
Every language
Talk about this word "placebo." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/placebo. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. placebo. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/placebo "placebo." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/placebo.Cite this
@misc{placebo_2026,
title = {placebo},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/placebo},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
