I "invented" a concept and it feels like it has already been invented before. I would like to know whether such a concept exists and if so, what is its name? --- Let $S$ be a family of finite sets. Say that $S$ is **1-dimensional** if there exists a sequence of sets $W_j$, for $j=1,2,\dots$, such that for every $j$: * $|W_j|=j$, and * For every set $s\in S$, either $s\subseteq W_j$ or $W_j\subseteq s$. For example: * The family of "rays" in $\mathbb{N}$, { {1}; {1,2}; {1,2,3}; ... }, is 1-dimensional. For every $j$, take $W_j=\{1,\dots,j\}$. * The family of "squares" in $\mathbb{N}\times \mathbb{N}$, { {(1,1)}; {(1,1),(1,2),(2,1),(2,2)}; {(1,1)...(1,3),(2,1)...(2,3),(3,1)...(3,3)}; ... }, is 1-dimensional. For every $j$, take $W_j$ as a subset of the "square" of side-length $\lceil \sqrt j\rceil $ that contains the "square" of side-length $\lfloor \sqrt j\rfloor$. * The family { {1}; {2}; {3}; ... } is not 1-dimensional. No choice for $W_1$, for example, satisfies the definition. For every integer $d\geq 1$, say that $S$ is **$d$-dimensional** if there exists a collection of sets $W_{j,t}$, for $j=1,2,\dots$ such that for every $j$: * $|W_{j,t}|=j$ for all $t$, and * The index $t$ ranges between 1 and $j^{d-1}$ (i.e, there are $j^{d-1}$ subsets for every $j$), and * For every set $s\in S$, there exists some $t \in 1,\dots, j^{d-1}$ such that, either $s\subseteq W_{j,t}$ or $W_{j,t}\subseteq s$. For example: * The family of "rectangles" in $\mathbb{N}\times \mathbb{N}$, { {(1,1)}; {(1,1),(1,2)}; {(1,1),(2,1)}; {(1,1),(1,2),(2,1),(2,2)}; ... }, is two-dimensional. For every $j$ and for every $t\in\{1,\dots,j\}$, Take $W_{j,t}$ as a subset of the "rectangle" of length $t$ and height $\lceil j/t \rceil$, which contains the "rectangle" of length $t$ and height $\lfloor j/t \rfloor$. * Similarly, the family of "boxes" in $\mathbb{N}^d$ is probably $d$-dimensional. I am mainly interested in questions such as: how to characterize / identify $d$-dimensional families; what other interesting $d$-dimensional families exist?