How to Use placebo in a Sentence

placebo

noun
  • Those in the placebo group had no drop in pain.
    — Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Some of the studies didn’t test the drugs against a placebo.
    — Angelica Peebles, CNBC, 6 Mar. 2026
  • The fourth group were given a placebo spray.
    — Cara Lynn Shultz, PEOPLE, 28 Jan. 2026
  • That’s not bad per se, except that placebos tend to wear off with time.
    — Erica Sloan, SELF, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Ten-year-old Qbert was among those given a placebo.
    — Anderson Cooper, CBS News, 22 Mar. 2026
  • Aches are just about as likely while taking a placebo pill as a statin.
    — Dr. Keith Roach, oregonlive, 13 May 2021
  • Twelve people from the placebo group died in the same timeframe.
    — Colleen Stinchcombe, SELF, 14 Dec. 2021
  • People taking a placebo lost just over two pounds.
    — Alice Park, Time, 7 Aug. 2025
  • There was one death in the treatment group, compared with nine deaths in the placebo group.
    — Travis Caldwell and Jen Christensen, CNN, 17 Dec. 2021
  • The other group received a placebo spray.
    — Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Some of the women will get the real shots, while others get a placebo.
    — NBC News, 18 Feb. 2021
  • So what if a therapy is no better than placebo?
    — Hannah Kerman, STAT, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Ten were moderate and four were severe, all in the placebo group.
    — Morgan Winsor, ABC News, 14 June 2021
  • Overall, those who got the drug did no better than those given a placebo.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Not being able to test against a placebo makes the study of these drugs much more difficult.
    — Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 6 June 2023
  • Two thirds of the participants got the peanut patch, while the rest got a placebo patch.
    — Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2023
  • The control group took a placebo for the same period.
    — Michele Laufik, Martha Stewart, 26 June 2026
  • The control group took a placebo for the same period.
    — Sandee Lamotte, CNN Money, 18 June 2026
  • Two-thirds would receive the vaccine, and the rest would receive a placebo.
    — The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 27 July 2021
  • This happens due to a process known as placebo analgesia.
    — Ava Erickson, Outside, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Those who received the placebo were then offered the vaccine.
    — Sarah Toy, WSJ, 22 Sep. 2021
  • Two-thirds of the children in the second phase will get the vaccine, and the rest will get a placebo.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 25 Mar. 2021
  • No one taking placebo quit the trial early.
    — Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Half the patients received hookworms for the treatment and half got a placebo.
    — Nick Blackmer, Verywell Health, 31 July 2023
  • Both groups went through periods of drinking beet juice or a nitrate-free placebo.
    — Mark Gurarie, Verywell Health, 22 June 2026
  • CureVac declined to say how many who got the shot got sick or how many received a placebo.
    — Naomi Kresge, Fortune, 17 June 2021
  • At the end of the trial, the women who took probiotics lost more weight than those in the placebo arm.
    — Sarah Bradley, Women's Health, 30 Jan. 2023
  • In a new study, older adults who drank beetroot juice had lower blood pressure than a placebo group.
    — Christina Manian, Health, 17 Sep. 2025
  • The researchers compared both doses against a placebo.
    — Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 14 May 2026
  • Survivors who got the drug cleared the virus from their semen more quickly than survivors who got the placebo.
    — NPR, 24 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'placebo.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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