clinical trial

American

the scientific investigation of a new treatment that has shown some benefit in animal or laboratory studies, but that has not yet been proven effective in humans.

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.

Roche Holding said a drug candidate for multiple sclerosis met the primary goal in a late-stage clinical trial in the most common form of the disease.

From The Wall Street Journal

Tilly was part of a gene therapy clinical trial at Sheffield Children's Hospital in 2024 to try to help reduce seizures connected to her condition.

From BBC

Neuralink is also running a clinical trial for an implant designed to restore speech.

From MarketWatch

To address that gap, the team searched research databases for systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials published through November 2025.

From Science Daily

The researchers also emphasized that this was not a randomized clinical trial, meaning participants were not randomly assigned to each treatment group.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023