1. a harmless pill or treatment given to a patient instead of real medicine, often used in medical studies to test the effectiveness of actual treatments
Usage: medical
2. something that is designed to please or reassure someone but has no real effect
Usage: figurative

Examples

• Half the patients received the new drug while the other half got a placebo.
• The placebo effect shows that patients sometimes feel better even when taking fake medicine.
• Researchers use placebos to ensure their studies are scientifically valid.
• The sugar pills served as placebos in the clinical trial.
• His reassuring words were just a placebo for her deeper concerns.
• The policy changes were criticized as mere placebos that wouldn’t solve the real problem.