What does "through osmosis" mean?

Question

I hear people use that phrase and I'm not sure what it means as "osmosis" is the diffusion of water through a cell wall or membrane or any....

Answer 1

It's like a sponge soaking up water

Answer 2

the technical term "osmosis" does refer to the diffusion of water through a membrane, but *most* people don't use it to mean that at all.

Sometimes people say they learned something "by osmosis."  Is this what you are asking about?

If so,  then people usually use this phrase to mean that someone was able to learn something without much effort.  It just "flowed to their brain" so to speak.  I used to teach science and sometimes students would joke by holding a textbook up to their head and saying that they were learning by "osmosis."  In other words, they were just hoping that the ideas would flow into their brain without having to study.

Hope that answers your question.