PlacebovsplacesTell them apart

Which to use

“Placebo” and “places” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,000
“Placebo” frequency rank
#43,412
“places” frequency rank
70412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Placebo places
Definition Medikament, das keinen Wirkstoff enthält, aber einem existierenden Medikament vom Aussehen her ähnelt und einen Placeboeffekt, sprich eine suggestive Wirkung, erzielen kann Plural des Substantivs place

Where the eye mixes Placebo and places

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Placebo runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against places's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Placebo
6 ch
places

Look-alike desk: Placebo vs places

A purely visual mix-up. Placebo ([plaˈt͡seːbo]) and places ([ˈpleɪsɪz]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Placebo is recorded at frequency rank #27,000, classified as anoun, pronounced [plaˈt͡seːbo]. places is at rank #43,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpleɪsɪz].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 70412, this pair ranks #447,163 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Placebo vs places

Shared letters: acelp. Private to "Placebo": bo. Private to "places": s.

"Placebo" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "places" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Placebo ← lpacebo · palcebo · placbeo · placcebo · placebbo · placeob · plaecbo · plcaebo
  • places ← lpaces · palces · placces · placess · placse · plaecs · plcaes · pllaces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Placebo" and "places" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([plaˈt͡seːbo] versus [ˈpleɪsɪz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Placebo" or "places" show up more?
"Placebo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,000 in our German list, against #43,412 for "places". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Placebo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "places" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #447,163 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Placebo" and "places" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "places vs plants". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #447,163 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list