Osmosis is simply the movement of water from regions of low solute concentration through a semi-permeable membrane to regions of high solute concentration. The prefixes endo- and exo- mean 'in' and 'out', respectively. The terms endosmosis and exosmosis are used in biology to describe osmosis when it occurs through the semi-permeable cell membrane. So endosmosis is the flow of water into the cell and exosmosis is the flow of water out of the cell.
Exosmosis and endosmosis are involved in many types of processes. The excretion of tears and other watery secretions of the body occurs by exosmosis. In plants, turgor pressure is formed by endosmosis and wilting occurs by exosmosis. Endosmosis occurs extensively in the intestines during the absorption of nutrients from food. Both endosmosis and exosmosis occur in the kidneys during the filtering process which produces urine.
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