[**Edited 10/22/15:** there were embarrassing errors in my original answer, which were pointed out in another question; I've corrected these, and I've written up further details in [a blog post][1].] ---------- I'm late to the party, but here's my two cents. References in what follows are to - [Ha] P.R. Halmos, *Measure Theory*, Springer, 1950. - [Ro] V.A. Rokhlin, *On the fundamental ideas of measure theory*, Transl. AMS, Series 1, No. 10 (1952), 1-54. (The original Russian article is from 1949. A pdf of the English translation is presently available [here][2].) - [JDH] will denote the answer already given to this question by Joel David Hamkins. Consider a measured $\sigma$-algebra $(S,\mu)$. Assume that $\mu$ is normalised to have total weight 1, and that $S$ is complete (contains all subsets of null sets). In [Ha], $(S,\mu)$ is said to be *separable* if it has a countable subset that is dense w.r.t. the metric $\rho(A,B) = \mu(A\bigtriangleup B)$. We denote this property by **(S)**. In [Ro], $(S,\mu)$ is said to be separable if it has a countable subset $\Gamma$ such that for every $A\in S$, there exists $B\in \sigma(\Gamma)$ such that $A\subset B$ and $\mu(B\setminus A) = 0$. Here $\sigma(\Gamma)$ is the $\sigma$-algebra generated by $\Gamma$. (In fact, Rokhlin's definition is given for a measure space, not just a measured $\sigma$-algebra, and requires that $\Gamma$ separate points of the space.) Since we're already using the word "separable" for **(S)**, let's say that in this case $(S,\mu)$ is *one-sided countably generated mod zero*, and denote this property by **(CG0+)**. So that's two conditions. Another natural condition would be that $S$ itself is countably generated, that is, that $S = \sigma(\Gamma)$ for some countable $\Gamma$; call this **(CG)**, and not that it applies to the Borel $\sigma$-algebra on $[0,1]$, but not the Lebesgue $\sigma$-algebra. The latter satisfies the weaker condition **(CG0+)**, and hence is also *countably generated mod zero*, meaning that there is a countable $\Gamma \subset S$ such that for every $A\in S$, there exists $B\in \sigma(\Gamma)$ such that $\mu(A \bigtriangleup B) = 0$. *(In the previous version of this answer I got carried away and also defined (S1), one-sided separability, to be the property that every $A\in S$ and $\epsilon>0$ there exists $B\in \Gamma$ such that $A\subset B$ and $\mu(B\setminus A) < \epsilon$. As was correctly pointed out by Rina Shora and Nik Weaver [on another question][3], this fails to hold for even the most standard examples.)* It is immediate that **(CG)** $\Rightarrow$ **(CG0+)** $\Rightarrow$ **(CG0)**, and [JDH] shows that **(CG0)** $\Rightarrow$ **(S)** (it is written with **(CG)** in mind, but works just as well for **(CG0)**). In fact one can also show that **(S)** $\Rightarrow$ **(CG0)** (details are in [this blog post][1]) -- that is, separability is equivalent to being countably generated *mod zero* -- and that the first two implications above are strict (the Lebesgue $\sigma$-algebra satisfies **(CG0+)** but not **(CG)**, and the $\sigma$-algebra of Lebesgue subsets of $[0,1]$ with measure 0 or 1 satisfies **(CG0)** but not **(CG0+)**). Finally, another related condition would be that $S$ is contained in the completion of a countably generated $\sigma$-algebra; this property lies somewhere between **(CG)** and **(CG0)**, but its relation to **(CG0+)** is not clear to me. The example in [JDH] involving the club filter shows that **(S)** (and hence **(CG0)**) is not enough to imply this condition. [1]: https://vaughnclimenhaga.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/lebesgue-probability-spaces-part-i/ [2]: http://ma.huji.ac.il/~matang02/rohlin.pdf [3]: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/171845/question-on-separability-of-a-measure