inactive substance

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That's the phenomenon in which people's symptoms improve after taking an inactive substance simply because they believe the treatment will work.

From US News • Jan. 28, 2015

For the control group, the capsules contained a placebo, a harmless, inactive substance.

From Time Magazine Archive

For how can a part which cannot feel—a soft inactive substance like the brain—be the very organ of perception and movement?

From Evolution, Old & New Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, as compared with that of Charles Darwin by Butler, Samuel

The dictionary defines the word placebo as, "an inactive substance or preparation, administered to please or gratify a patient, also used in controlled studies to determine the efficiency of medicinal substances."

From A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis by Powers, Melvin