placebo
/pləˈsi.boʊ/noun
placebo is spelled P-L-A-C-E-B-O: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, placebo means “A dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of placebo is placebos or placeboes.
How many letters and syllables are in placebo?
| Letters | 7: P-L-A-C-E-B-O |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is placebo?
Placebo appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce placebo?
- UK /pləˈsiː.bəʊ/
- US /pləˈsi.boʊ/
- Australia /pləˈsiː.bəʉ/
Placebo has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-placebo.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with placebo?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as placebo from its last stressed vowel (/iboʊ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of placebo
- placebos plural
- placeboes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does placebo mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment.
- 2
The vespers sung in the office for the dead.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate placebo?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of placebo: PLC.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Placebo in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does placebo come from?
Inherited from Middle English placebo, borrowed from Latin placēbō (“I will please”), the first-person singular future active indicative of placeō (“to please”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).