placebo

See also: Placebo

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (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

Noun

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.

Derived terms

• antiplacebo
• nonplacebo
• placebic
• placebo button
• placebo-controlled
• placebo effect
• placebogenic
• placebolike
• placebology
• placebome

Translations

a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment

• Bulgarian: плацебо n (placebo)
• Catalan: placebo (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 安慰劑 / 安慰剂 (zh) (ānwèijì)

• Czech: placebo (cs) n
• Danish: placebo c or n
• Dutch: placebo (nl) f
• Erzya: чавоменге (čavomenge)
• Esperanto: placebo
• Finnish: lumelääke (fi), plasebo (fi)
• French: placebo (fr) m
• Galician: placebo m
• German: Placebo (de) n, Plazebo n
• Greek: πλασέμπο (el) n (plasémpo)
• Hebrew: פְּלָצֶבּוֹ (he) m (platzébo)
• Hindi: कूटभेषज (kūṭbheṣaj)
• Icelandic: lyfleysa f, þóknunarhrifslyf n
• Irish: placebo
• Italian: placebo (it)
• Japanese: 偽薬 (ja) (ぎやく, giyaku), プラセボ (ja) (purasebo)
• Macedonian: плацебо n (placebo)
• Norwegian: placebo
• Polish: placebo (pl) n
• Portuguese: placebo (pt) m
• Russian: плаце́бо (ru) n (placébo)
• Spanish: placebo m
• Swedish: placebo (sv)
• Tamil: மருந்துப்போலி (maruntuppōli)
• Ukrainian: плацебо́ n (placebó)

See also

• drug
• nocebo

Anagrams

• Obecalp

Czech

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈplat͡sɛbo]

Noun

placebo n

1. placebo (dummy medicine containing no active ingredients)

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

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

Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌplaːˈseː.boː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pla‧ce‧bo

Noun

placebo m (plural placebo's, no diminutive)

1. placebo
2. (obsolete) sycophant

Derived terms

• het placebo zingen
• placebo spelen

Esperanto

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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

1. (medicine) placebo, dummy drug

French

Alternative forms

• placébo (post-1990 spelling)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pla.se.bo/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

Noun

placebo m (plural placebos)

1. placebo

Further reading

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

Hungarian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈplɒt͡sɛboː]
• Hyphenation: pla‧ce‧bo
• Rhymes: -boː

Noun

placebo (plural placebók)

1. (medicine) placebo (a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients)

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	placebo	placebók
accusative	placebót	placebókat
dative	placebónak	placebóknak
instrumental	placebóval	placebókkal
causal-final	placebóért	placebókért
translative	placebóvá	placebókká
terminative	placebóig	placebókig
essive-formal	placeboként	placebókként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	placebóban	placebókban
superessive	placebón	placebókon
adessive	placebónál	placebóknál
illative	placebóba	placebókba
sublative	placebóra	placebókra
allative	placebóhoz	placebókhoz
elative	placebóból	placebókból
delative	placebóról	placebókról
ablative	placebótól	placebóktól
non-attributive possessive – singular	placebóé	placebóké
non-attributive possessive – plural	placebóéi	placebókéi

Possessive forms of placebo

possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	placebóm	placebóim
2nd person sing.	placebód	placebóid
3rd person sing.	placebója	placebói
1st person plural	placebónk	placebóink
2nd person plural	placebótok	placebóitok
3rd person plural	placebójuk	placebóik

Derived terms

Compound words

• placebohatás
• placebokezelés

Interlingua

Etymology

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

Noun

placebo (plural placebos)

1. placebo

Italian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

placebo m (invariable)

1. (pharmacology, figurative) placebo

Derived terms

• effetto placebo

Latin

Verb

placēbō

1. first-person singular future active indicative of placeō

References

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

Middle English

FWOTD – 1 August 2020

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pla(ː)ˈseːboː/

Noun

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.

Descendants

• English: placebo

References

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

Polish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plaˈt͡sɛ.bɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

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

Noun

placebo n (indeclinable)

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

Further reading

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

Portuguese

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /plaˈse.bu/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /plaˈse.bu/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /plaˈse.bo/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /plɐˈse.bu/ [plɐˈse.βu]

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

Adjective

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

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

Noun

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?)

Further reading

• “placebo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “placebo”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “placebo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

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

Noun

placebo n (uncountable)

1. placebo

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	placebo	placeboul
genitive-dative	placebo	placeboului
vocative	placeboule

Spanish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

placebo m (plural placebos)

1. placebo

Derived terms

• efecto placebo

Further reading

• “placebo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025