placebo
/pləˈsiː.bəʊ/
"placebo" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“placebo” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #15,477. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #15,477
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-placebo · placebo · English
placebo · rank #15,477 · 10 variants · 4 confusables
- FREQ-MID #15,477
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pisses
Nearest frequency peer: pisses (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “placebo”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- pilgrims
pilgrims
84,527 corpus weight
- Pinterest
Pinterest
84,526 corpus weight
- pisses
pisses
84,525 corpus weight
- placebo
placebo
84,524 corpus weight
- podcasts
podcasts
84,523 corpus weight
- postpone
postpone
84,521 corpus weight
What this shows “placebo” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | placebo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #15,477 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “placebo”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around placebo (IPA /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #15,477 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for placebo, with forms such as "lpacebo", "palcebo", and "placbeo". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "places", "placed", "placer", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English placebo, borrowed from Latin placēbō (“I will please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“I please”). The correct English form is placebo, spelled P-L-A-C-E-B-O.
Definition
- 1A dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment.
- 2The vespers sung in the office for the dead.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how placebo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The acid test, I thought, was whether homeopathic remedies behave differently from placebos when submitted to clinical trials.
The trials overall showed some but limited effectiveness, and in one of the largest and longest trials, the placebo performed better in treating spasticity, pain and bladder dysfunction, Dr. Bowling wrote.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English placebo, borrowed from Latin placēbō (“I will please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“I please”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- lpacebo
- palcebo
- placbeo
- placcebo
- placebbo
- placeob
- plaecbo
- plcaebo
- pllacebo
- pplacebo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of placebo - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "placebo", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).