Which to use
“placebo” is a noun and “placées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,032
- “placebo” frequency rank
- #9,533
- “placées” frequency rank
- 31565
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | placebo | placées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Imitation de médicament sans principe actif, utilisée pour les tests en double aveugle ou pour son effet sur le psychisme de certains patients. | Féminin pluriel de placé. |
Where the eye mixes placebo and placées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. placebo (CCVCVCV) and placées (CCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between placebo and placées
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: placebo is \pla.se.bo\ while placées is \pla.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
placebo is recorded at frequency rank #22,032, classified as anoun, pronounced \pla.se.bo\. placées is at rank #9,533, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pla.se\.
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 31565, this pair ranks #302,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of placebo vs placées
Shared letters: acelp. Private to "placebo": bo. Private to "placées": sé.
"placebo" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "placées" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- placebo ← lpacebo · palcebo · placbeo · placcebo · placebbo · placeob · plaecbo · plcaebo
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "placebo" and "placées" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "placebo" or "placées"?
Useful next steps
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 "placées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #302,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "placebo" and "placées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "placebo vs placera". 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 #302,995 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.