Nocebo

//nəʊˈsiː.bəʊ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A substance which a patient experiences as harmful due to a previous negative perception, but which is in fact pharmacologically (medicinally) inactive. also, attributive

    "It is somewhat surprising that little attention has been drawn to the existence of the contrary effect [to the placebo] – which I may call the nocebo reaction."

Example

More examples

"Both nocebo and placebo effects are presumably psychogenic."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nocēbō (“I will harm”), the first-person singular future active indicative form of noceō (“I harm”), by analogy with placebo. The word was coined by Walter P. Kennedy in an article entitled “The Nocebo Reaction” (1961). (see quotation).

Related phrases

nocebo effect

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.