Placebic

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Functioning as a placebo.

    "In the request-only condition, the experimenter said simply 'Excuse me, I have 5 (20) copies. May I use the xerox machine?' In the placebic information condition, this was followed by the phrase 'because I need to make copies'. In the real information condition, the reason offered in support was 'because I am in a rush'."

Example

More examples

"In the request-only condition, the experimenter said simply 'Excuse me, I have 5 (20) copies. May I use the xerox machine?' In the placebic information condition, this was followed by the phrase 'because I need to make copies'. In the real information condition, the reason offered in support was 'because I am in a rush'."

Etymology

From placebo + -ic.

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