osculant

1. not comparablebiologyAdhering closely; applied to certain creeping animals, such as caterpillars.
2. not comparablebiologyIntermediate between two genera, groups, families, etc., and having some of the characteristics of each; interosculant.

   osculant groups

   1 more example

   The genera by which two families approximate are called osculant genera.

3. not comparableBantu linguisticsIntermediate between multiple potentially reconstructible protoforms, but having a mismatch in semantics or morphology that cannot be explained through regular patterns of change.
4. not comparablegeometryTangent, touching at a single point.

plural osculants

1. geometryThe point at which two tangent curves touch.
2. algebraThe condition that the solution to a set of simultaneous quantics, is also the solution of the corresponding set of tangential quantics.
3. mathematicsa form of tacinvariant of hypersurfaces that have a point in common

   Synonyms: tacinvariant