Let $A \subseteq B$ be commutative noetherian rings. I have found the following claim: **"Separability implies smoothness"** with the following explanation: "The natural thing is to prove that a separable algebra is a regular homomorphism (and so smooth if it is of finite type). In general ...". Remark: I am only interested in finitely generated algebras, so did not quote the rest of the explanation. However, it seems to me, at least with my definitions, that this claim is false: If $A \subseteq B$ is separable, then (assuming the claim is true) $A \subseteq B$ is smooth, then by a result of Grothendieck, $A \subseteq B$ is flat, but this seems too much (especially in view of [Examples on pages 95-97][1] and [Corollary 9][2]; I do not see why separability should imply flatness of $B$ over $A$. Notice that actually, this is what the explanation suggests: it says that separability implies $A \to B$ is a regular homomorphism, and by definition, a regular homomorphism is flat). I will really appreciate if one can either post a sketch of proof/tell me where I can find a proof, or a counterexample. Actually, I have already posted this question [here][3], but got no comments thus far. **EDIT:** I work with the definition of separability of [this book][4], and with the definition of smoothness of [this paper][5]. [1]: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-015-8555-2_5 [2]: http://ac.els-cdn.com/0021869380902331/1-s2.0-0021869380902331-main.pdf?_tid=73b8ca36-2846-11e5-8b8e-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1436672055_edd3c1b73a42fb02541d5db701287e09 [3]: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1358096/separability-implies-smoothness [4]: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783540053712 [5]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0021-8693(81)90217-9