Word
placebo
Meanings
A harmless pill or treatment with no active medicine, used in medical studies as a comparison.
Something that seems to help mainly because a person believes it will, not because it has a real effect.
Definition
A placebo is a harmless treatment with no active medicine, used in studies or sometimes to help someone feel better through belief.
A placebo is a pill, injection, or other treatment that looks real but does not contain an active drug. It is often used in medical research to compare against a real treatment. People may still feel improvement after a placebo because their expectations can affect how they feel.
Examples
- The doctor explained that one group would receive a placebo.
- Her headache improved after the placebo, even though it contained no drug.
- In the trial, neither the patients nor the nurses knew who got the placebo.
- Some people respond strongly to a placebo when they expect results.