Meaning & use
control group
The group in a scientific experiment that does not receive the treatment being tested, used for comparison.
See it in a sentence
Researchers gave the new drug to one group and a placebo to the control group.
Without a control group, it would be difficult to know whether the treatment truly worked.
A note on using this word
The control group should be as similar as possible to the treatment group in every way except the variable being tested.
Words with a similar meaning
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