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Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.
placebo noun (placebos) 1 medicine a substance that is administered as a drug but has no medicinal content, either given to a patient for its reassuring and therefore beneficial effect (the placebo effect), or used in a clinical trial of a real drug, in which participants who have been given a placebo (though believing that it is the real drug) serve as untreated control subjects for comparison with those actually given the drug. 2 RC Church the vespers for the dead.
ETYMOLOGY: 18c in sense 1; 13c in sense 2: Latin, meaning 'I shall please', from the first word of the first antiphon of the vespers service, starting Placebo Domino I shall please the Lord.
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The Chambers Dictionary (13th edition)
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The Chambers Thesaurus
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Chambers Biographical Dictionary
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Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.
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