Largest crossword puzzles without blanks or blockers

Question

How big a crossword puzzle can you make without using any blank squares? Only the solution is required, not the clues.

Here is a 6x6 example, the solution to a recent puzzle by @Avon.

A B A S E S
B A N A N A
A N G L E D
S A L A M I
E N E M A S
S A D I S T

Answers are sought in five categories:

• 1) puzzles with a square grid, where all rows and columns are of equal length
• 2) puzzles with an oblong grid, where all rows are of equal length and so are all columns but rows are longer than columns
• 3) puzzles with a jagged right-hand edge, where all down words start in the first row
• 4) puzzles with a jagged right-hand edge, where one or more down words do not start in the first row, and where columns that contain two or more (disjoint) words are allowed
• 5) the same as 4), but with the added requirement that every letter must be in both an across word and a down word

In each category

• all words contain two or more letters
• all words contain contiguous letters only
• each horizontal or vertical string of contiguous letters that isn't contained within another such string forms a word, and we're not interested in words that are contained in other words
• there are no blanks: in other words, no empty space is adjoined in all four cardinal directions by letters
• all letters not in the top row are under a letter in the top row, and all letters not in the leftmost column are to the right of a letter in the leftmost column

The third condition rules out the type of crossword that instead of using blanks uses small blocker lines between squares, like this:

The last condition rules out puzzles such as

P R E S T I D I G I T A T I O N
  A T
  P A T
      A T
        A T
          . . 

Note that

• in all categories, each row only contains one word, beginning at the left edge of the grid.

• in the first, second and fifth categories, each letter is in both an across word and a down word

An example of a puzzle in the second category:

A P E S
L I K E
L E E T

One in the third:

F E T C H
A R E
N E A T 

Two in the fourth:

M A T C H
A R
L I E N
T A R O 

S K I T
C A N
O R
O M E N
T A R O 

One in the fifth:

E T A
M A T
O R
T E A
E S H 

In each category, there will be

• a) a winner with the most letters
• b) a winner with the most words.

(In the first category, these will be the same puzzle.)

In the second category, there will be three additional classes of winner:

• c) a winner for each number of rows, being the oblong with the most columns
• d) an overall row winner, with the largest number of rows
• e) an overall column winner, with the largest number of columns

Letters and words are counted with multiplicity.

Other interesting classes of winner may well be suggested as time goes on!

Answer 1

1) WORD SQUARE: The maximum length is 9 letters, or 10 if you extend the dictionary with personal names, geographic nouns, and so on...
Example of 9:

A C H A L A S I A
C R E N I D E N S
H E X A N D R I C
A N A B O L I T E
L I N O L E N I N
A D D L E H E A D
S E R I N E T T E
I N I T I A T O R
A S C E N D E R S

Example of 10:

D E S C E N D A N T
E C H E N E I D A E
S H O R T C O A T S
C E R B E R U L U S
E N T E R O M E R E
N E C R O L A T E R
D I O U M A B A N A
A D A L E T A B A T
N A T U R E N A M E
T E S S E R A T E D

2) WORD RECTANGLE: The biggest known word rectangles seem to be 8x4 and 7x6. This is 8x4:

D E C I M A T E
A V O C A D O S
N A M E L E S S
E S P R E S S O

and this is 7x6:

A M E R I C A
M A R A C A S
B U R G E S S
I M I T A T E
T A N A G E R
S U G G E S T

3) "LEFT" CROSSWORD: The biggest I've found is a 13-length half square:

T O S H A M A B R A H A M
O B T E N E B R A T E S
S T R A I T L A C E D
H E A D S H A K E S
A N I S O A T E S
M E T H A N O L
A B L A T O R
B R A K E L
R A C E S
A T E S
H E D
A S
M

4) RIGHT-JAGGED CROSSWORD: I suggest a 10-length half square.

P
R A
O R S
G R E W
R E X E S
E S T A T E
S T O N I N G
S I L E N T L Y
E V E R G R E E N
S E T S E Y E S O N

5) RIGHT-JAGGED ADVANCED CROSSWORD: Again, I propose the same crossword of the fourth contest.

Credits: most of my material comes from the National Puzzlers' League