Meaning & use
osmosis
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Meanings
noununcountablebiologychemistry
The slow movement of a liquid through a thin barrier from a weaker solution to a stronger one.
Grammar: Uncountable in this scientific sense: say 'osmosis occurs', not 'an osmosis'.
Patterns
- by osmosis
- osmosis through a membrane
- the process of osmosis
In the experiment, water moved into the salty solution by osmosis.
Osmosis happens when a solvent passes through a semipermeable membrane.
Plant roots take in water through osmosis.
noununcountablefigurative
The gradual, often unconscious taking in of ideas or knowledge from the people around you.
Grammar: Figurative and uncountable, usually in the phrase 'by osmosis'.
Patterns
- learn something by osmosis
- absorb something by osmosis
She picked up the local dialect by osmosis while living there.
Children often learn social rules by osmosis rather than direct teaching.
Common combinations
- by osmosis
- He learned the company's unwritten rules by osmosis.
- reverse osmosis
- Reverse osmosis is used to make seawater drinkable.
- osmosis through a membrane
- The lab studied osmosis through a membrane.
- the process of osmosis
- The process of osmosis explains why the cells swelled.
Synonyms and how they differ
- diffusion
- Diffusion is the broader mixing of particles; osmosis is specifically a solvent crossing a semipermeable membrane.
- absorption
- Absorption can mean taking in a liquid or ideas, but it does not require a membrane as osmosis does.
Word family
- osmotic adjective
- Relating to osmosis, as in 'osmotic pressure'.
- osmotically adverb
- In a way that involves osmosis.
Commonly confused: osmosis or diffusion? osmosis or osmosis / osmos?
osmosis vs diffusion
Diffusion is the general spreading of particles from crowded to less crowded areas; osmosis is a special case involving a solvent and a semipermeable membrane.
osmosis vs osmosis / osmos
The standard English word is 'osmosis'; 'osmos' is rare and not the usual term.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'osmosis' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Osmosis is the movement of a solvent through a semipermeable membrane, so option 0 fits. Option 1 confuses osmosis with diffusion, option 2 wrongly calls it a reaction, and option 3 treats an uncountable noun as plural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “osmosis”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.