placebo

Aplacebo is a substance with no actual medication or therapeutic effect, or any action or substance designed only to calm someone. (noun)

When you go to the doctor and claim you are sick but there is really nothing wrong with you and the doctor gives you a sugar pill that has no actual effect except appeasing your complaints, this sugar pill is an example of a placebo.
When a drug company is testing a new drug and gives one group a real pill and the other group gets a sugar pill, the sugar pill that he gives to the other group is an example of a placebo.

See placebo in Webster's New World College Dictionary

R.C.Ch. the first antiphon of the vespers for the dead, beginning with the word placebo
a harmless, unmedicated preparation given as a medicine merely to humor a patient, or used as a control in testing the efficacy of another, medicated substance
something said or done to win the favor of another

See placebo in American Heritage Dictionary 4

(plə-sēˈbō)

noun pl. pla·ce·bos or pla·ce·boes

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

Learn more about placebo

» placebo Culture

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» A Closer Look: Definition of Placebo

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