Noun

(en noun)

The act of assimilating]] or the state of being [[assimilate, assimilated.

* {{quote-book, year=1797, author=An English Lady, title=A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795,, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=--France swarms with Gracchus's and Publicolas, who by imaginary assimilations of acts, which a change of manners has rendered different, fancy themselves more than equal to their prototypes.}}

* {{quote-news, year=1996, date=January 26, author=Bertha Husband, title=Double Identity, work=Chicago Reader citation

, passage=His work generally is full of assimilations and quotations from art that is not Mexican, and he's said, "Nationalism has nothing to do with my work.}}

The metabolic conversion of nutrients into tissue.

* {{quote-book, year=1908, author=Washington Gladden, title=The Church and Modern Life, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=We have great need to be careful in these assimilations ; some kinds of food are rich but not easily digested.}}

(by extension) The absorption of new ideas into an existing cognitive structure.

(phonology) A sound change process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary), so that a change of phoneme occurs.

(sociology, cultural studies) The adoption, by a minority group, of the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture.

Noun

(osmoses)

The net movement of solvent molecules, usually water, from a region of high solvent potential to a region of lower solvent potential through a partially permeable membrane

(slang) Picking up knowledge accidentally, without actually seeking that particular knowledge.

I was reading about chickens, and I guess I learned about hawks through osmosis .

* 1999 , Neil Gaiman, Stardust , pages 36-37 (2001 Perennial paperback edition)

At age fourteen, by a process of osmosis , of dirty jokes, whispered secrets and filthy ballads, Tristram learned of sex.