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  1. placebo love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well.
  2. n. An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug.
  3. n. Something of no intrinsic remedial value that is used to appease or reassure another.
  4. n. Roman Catholic Church The service or office of vespers for the dead.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In the Roman Catholic Church, the vespers of the office for the dead. It was so called from the initial words of the opening antiphon, Placebo Domino in regione vivorum (I shall be acceptable unto the Lord in the land of the living), taken from Psalm cxiv. 9 of the Vulgate (cxvi. 9 of the authorized version).
  2. n. A medicine adapted rather to pacify than to benefit a patient.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (R. C. Ch.) The first antiphon of the vespers for the dead.
  2. n. (Med.) A prescription with no pharmacological activity given to a patient to humor or satisfy the desire for medical treatment.
  3. n. (Med.) a dose of a compound having no pharmacological activity given to a subject in a medical experiment as part of a control experiment in a test of the effectiveness of another, active pharmacological agent.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an innocuous or inert medication; given as a pacifier or to the control group in experiments on the efficacy of a drug
  2. n. (Roman Catholic Church) vespers of the office for the dead

Etymologies

  1. From Latin placēbō ("I will please"), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō ("I please"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Late Latin placēbō, I shall please (the first word of the first antiphon of the service), first person sing. future tense of Latin placēre, to please; see plāk-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “ The term placebo: an inert medication or bogus treatment that is intended to control for expectancy effects.”

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  • “The pharmaceutical industry including some prominent researchers and supposed regulators continue to insist that testing new drugs against a placebo is the only way to get scientifically valid and meaningful results even though administration of placebos means some subjects get no treatment at all.”

    The Constant Greedy

  • “PHILIPS: Well, I think there is what we call a placebo effect.”

    CNN Transcript Jun 22, 2005

  • “And although doctors don't have to use the word "placebo," they should tell patients they are getting an unusual treatment.”

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed

  • “But Scriba said doctors aren't obliged to actually use the word 'placebo.”

    The Seattle Times

  • “Biases are present in placebo-controlled trials of both homoeopathy and conventional medicine.”

    Nightmare Advice on Allergies

  • “If yesterday was about admitting and addressing the illness, today and tomorrow will hopefully be about prescribing a direction for recovery [not a short-term placebo].”

    Cameron Sinclair: Davos: Looking Beyond the Obvious to See the Future

  • “In clinical trials, moodiness was more common among users of Ortho Tri Cyclen than in placebo users, but overall occurred in less than 10% of users.”

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  • “In the first instance, the word placebo comes to mind.”

    Archive 2009-06-01

  • “Everything that can be argued to 'work' in a certain percentage of cases (always self-reported) by means of talk-talk, magick or placebo is loosely grouped under the "Psychology" heading.”

    Backing Into an Evidentiary Standard for ID

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antonyms (1)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. nocebo

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. vesper

same context (23)

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reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. active placebo
  1. placebo effect

tags (2)

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  1. The Wørd
  1. band name

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‘placebo’ has been looked up 2700 times, loved by 3 people, added to 37 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 13.