Relative dimension of morphisms and dimension for algebraic stacks

Motivated by applications in moduli theory, we introduce a flexible and powerful language for expressing lower bounds on relative dimension of morphisms of schemes, and more generally of algebraic stacks. We show that the theory is robust and applies to a wide range of situations. Consequently, we obtain simple tools for making dimension-based deformation arguments on moduli spaces. Additionally, in a complementary direction we develop the basic properties of codimension for algebraic stacks. One of our goals is to provide a comprehensive toolkit for working transparently with dimension statements in the context of algebraic stacks.