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.

Noun

(diagnoses)

(medicine) The identification of the nature and cause of an illness.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=Philip E. Mirowski , title=Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits , volume=100, issue=1, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.}}

The identification of the nature and cause of something (of any nature).

* Compton Reade

The quick eye for effects, the clear diagnosis of men's minds, and the love of epigram.

* J. Payn

My diagnosis of his character proved correct.

(taxonomy) A written description of a species or other taxon serving to distinguish that species from all others. Especially, a description written in Latin and published.

*

The repeated exposure, over decades, to most taxa here treated has resulted in repeated modifications of both diagnoses and discussions, as initial ideas of the various taxa underwent—often repeated—conceptual modification.