Not quite Saturated

Question

The answer to this Puzzle would be a single word.

1. Dancing Descent

2. Cryptic Rebuses for another idea?

3. Fish type, maybe?

Crustacean, few, Culture, finest(4,1) or (1,4)
Dear, spoken, tanks, besides (2,1) or (1,2)
Diane, Grey, miss, All (3,1) or (1,3)
Smooch, lightbulb, risque, tells (3,4) or (4,3)

4. Missing a Bite.

In same side or in replacing five with 100 in mask. (7)
A Real follows endless spy. Short moment with tailless bird (5)
Earlier m instead of p in bear. Rock music follows Public Relations with unending alarm (8)

5. Wordsearch or Wordmake?

Periodic Hints will be given. Here's the first one.

4 doesn't have valid cryptic clues. And it's a tad indirect.
Second hint is written above.

Answer 1

1.

This is the Dancing Men cipher, and it says ANCESTRAL FIFTY IN ODD HALF ELAPSE SIX: that's a cryptic clue for LINEAL (L + IN + EAL*, anagram of the first half of ELAPSE).

2.

These rebuses are:
1. SONG (S on G)
2. SPACE (Sp3000, minus 3000 (Roman numerals), plus ACE)
3. DEATH (D + EA(-r)TH - thanks, Gareth!)
4. BOARD (B + OAR + D)
5. CHECK

Read down the diagonal to get SPARK.

3.

These are all clues to word squares:

CRAB / RARE / ARTS / BEST -->B
LOVE / ORAL / VATS / ELSE -->O
LANE / AREA / NEAR / EARS -->N (solved by feelinferrety)
KISS / IDEA / SEXY / SAYS -->Y

4.

These are all "double-wordplay cryptic clues" - that is, cryptic-style clues where instead of the definition, we get more wordplay. As detailed in feelinferrety's answer, we get INCISOR, MOLAR, PREMOLAR (all types of teeth), so the answer is CANINE.

5.

NATO phonetic alphabet letters with their first letters missing are hidden here. We have PAPA, OSCAR, ROMEO, ECHO, and SIERRA, making PORES.

Extra letters also spell PORES, with an extra Z.
---OE
P----
----S
---ZR
-----

Meta

As hinted by "periodic hints", each word can be decomposed into elements on the periodic table.

- Li-Ne-Al
- S-P-Ar-K
- B-O-N-Y
- Ca-Ni-Ne
- Po-Re-S

In each word, all elements are in the same row (the same "period") - except for the last one. Those last elements spell Alkynes, a type of chemical that is "not quite saturated", as the title suggests.

Answer 2

Partial answer filling in the gaps in the existing primary answer.

3. Fish type, maybe?

• Diane, Grey, miss, All (3,1) or (1,3)

  LANE, AREA, NEAR, EARS = N

• Final Answer:

  BONY

4. Missing a Bite.

• In same side or in replacing five with 100 in mask. (7)

  INCISOR = IN + CIS + OR / IN + [V->C]ISOR

• A Real follows endless spy. Short moment with tailless bird (5)

  MOLAR = MOL[E] + A R / MO + LAR[K]

• Earlier m instead of p in bear. Rock music follows Public Relations with unending alarm (8)

  PREMOLAR = PRE + [P->M]OLAR / PR + EMO + [A]LAR[M]

• And the missing one (final answer)?

  CANINE