a substance that has no physical effects, given to patients who do not need medicine but think that they do, or used when testing new drugs 安慰剂,安慰药(给无实际治疗需要者或测试新药时使用) the placebo effect (= the effect of taking a placebo and feeling better) 安慰剂效应 Half of the people taking part in the experiment were given a placebo. 参与药物试验者有半数所服用的是无效对照剂。 The placebo effect means that any treatment will improve patients merely because they want to recover. 安慰剂效应意味着任何治疗都会改善患者,仅仅因为他们想康复。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryPlacebo is used before these nouns:- effect
Word Originlate 18th cent.: from Latin, literally ‘I shall be acceptable or pleasing’, from placere ‘to please’.