placebo

From Middle English placebo, from Latin placēbō (“I shall please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“I please”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/

  • Audio (England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /pləˈsi.boʊ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pləˈsiː.bəʉ/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /pləˈsiː.bɐʉ/
• Rhymes: -iːbəʊ

placebo (plural placebos or placeboes)

1. (medicine) A dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment. [from 18th c.]
   • 2010 February 22, Edzard Ernst, “No to homeopathy placebo”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The acid test, I thought, was whether homeopathic remedies behave differently from placebos when submitted to clinical trials.

   • 2021 March 8, Jane E. Brody, “Medical Marijuana Is Not Regulated as Most Medicines Are”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     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.

2. (Roman Catholicism) The vespers sung in the office for the dead. [from 13th c.]
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 349:

     There the placebo, the office for the dead, was sung, and a vigil kept throughout the night.

• drug
• nocebo

• Obecalp

• IPA^(key): [ˈplat͡sɛbo]

placebo n

1. placebo (dummy medicine containing no active ingredients)

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• “placebo”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995

Borrowed from Latin placēbō.

• IPA^(key): /ˌplaːˈseː.boː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pla‧ce‧bo

placebo m (plural placebo's)

1. placebo
2. (obsolete) sycophant

• het placebo zingen
• placebo spelen

Derived from Latin placēbō (“I will please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“I please”).

• IPA^(key): /plaˈt͡sebo/
• Rhymes: -ebo
• Hyphenation: pla‧ce‧bo

placebo (accusative singular placebon, plural placeboj, accusative plural placebojn)

1. (medicine) placebo, dummy drug

• placébo (post-1990 spelling)

Borrowed from Latin placēbō.

• IPA^(key): /pla.se.bo/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

placebo m (plural placebos)

1. placebo

• “placebo”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

placebo (plural placebos)

1. placebo

From Latin placēbō.

• IPA^(key): /plaˈt͡ʃɛ.bo/
• Rhymes: -ɛbo
• Hyphenation: pla‧cè‧bo

placebo m (invariable)

1. (pharmacology, figurative) placebo

• effetto placebo

placēbō

1. first-person singular future active indicative of placeō

• "placebo", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Borrowed from Latin placēbo, the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō.

• IPA^(key): /plaːˈsɛːbɔː/

placebo (plural placeboes)

1. (Christianity) The vespers sung in the office for the dead.
   • a. 1380, John Wycliffe, Of feyned contemplatif lif, of ſong, of þe ordynal of ſalisbury, & of bodely almes & worldly byſyneſse of preſtis; hou bi þes foure þe fend lettiþ hem fro prechynge of þe gospel‎^[3]:

     Þan were matynys & maſse & euen ſong, placebo & dirige & comendacion & matynes of oure lady ordeyned of ſynful men, to be ſongen wiþ heiȝe criynge to lette men fro þe ſentence & vnderſtondynge of þat þat was þus ſongen, & to maken men wery & vndiſpoſid to ſtudie goddis lawe for akyng of hedis […]

     Then there were matins, mass, evensong, placebo, dirges, commendations, and matins of Our Lady, which originated from sinful men, to be sung with high-pitched shrieking to keep people from the meaning and understanding of that which was sung, as to make men weary and unsuited to study God's law because of headaches […]

2. Talk for buttering someone up, making them sycophantic or pleasing them.
3. A representation or exemplar of adulation or sycophancy.

• English: placebo

• “plācēbo, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 7 May 2019.

Learned borrowing from Latin placēbō.

• IPA^(key): /plaˈt͡sɛ.bɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛbɔ
• Syllabification: pla‧ce‧bo

placebo n (indeclinable)

1. (pharmacology) placebo (dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment)

• placebo in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• placebo in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• placebo in PWN's encyclopedia

Learned borrowing from Latin placēbō.

• Rhymes: -ebu
• Hyphenation: pla‧ce‧bo

placebo (feminine placeba, masculine plural placebos, feminine plural placebas)

1. refers to the effect or reaction of an individual or group to whom a was given

placebo m (plural placebos)

1. placebo
   1. (medicine) inert medicine administered for suggestive or psychological purposes, which can alleviate ailments solely through the faith that the patient has in its powers
   2. (pharmacy) substance without therapeutic effects, administered in a clinical trial to a certain control group
   3. (pharmacy) active drug used in a condition in which it is inactive, with a similar objective
2. (figuratively) action or measure that is only intended to placate someone, without truly solving a problem (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)

• “placebo”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “placebo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Borrowed from French placebo.

placebo n (uncountable)

1. placebo

From medical New Latin placēbō, from Latin placēbō (literally “I will please”).

• IPA^(key): /plaˈθebo/ [plaˈθe.β̞o] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /plaˈsebo/ [plaˈse.β̞o] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -ebo
• Syllabification: pla‧ce‧bo

placebo m (plural placebos)

1. placebo

• “placebo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024