Words / P / Medicine

placebo

noun/pləˈsiːbəʊ/

B1CEFR level
35/100Rarity: fairly common
TechnicalRegister

An inert treatment given as if it were an active drug.

Half the trial group received a placebo.

Similar: dummy, inert pill

Origin: Latin placebo 'I shall please'.

Topic: Pharmacology in Medical English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More medicine words: Pharmacology