With all five, I'm a country

Question

A tyobrien riddle inspired by Ébe Isaac's.

With two, I'm a city
With three, I'm a town
With four, I'm a village
With all five, I'm a country

Edit: There are multiple possible correct answers.

For the one I am thinking of, here are a few hints:

With two, I was conquered by Israelites

With three, I sound like a dessert

With four, my population is 14 ᵃˢ ᵒᶠ ²⁰⁰⁶

With five, my area is over 500000 km²

In tyobrien's original riddle, "with two" means specifically the first two letters, etc.; both answers posted so far allow their substrings to lie anywhere within the country name. Would you like to clarify which way you meant it? — Gareth McCaughan, Mar 02 '20 at 17:43
@GarethMcCaughan Rot13(Gur yrggref ner nqwnprag, ohg abg arprffnevyl ng gur ortvaavat.) — DenverCoder1, Mar 02 '20 at 18:02

hexomino · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-02T21:23:04.250

13

With the hints, it is now clear that the actual answer is

Spain

With two, I'm a city

Ai

With three, I'm a town

Pai

With four, I'm a village

Pain

With all five, I'm a country

Spain

Original Answer

Haiti

With two, I'm a city

Ai

With three, I'm a town

Ait

With four, I'm a village

Hait

With all five, I'm a country

Haiti

edited Mar 02 '20 at 21:23

answered Mar 02 '20 at 17:20

hexomino

135,910
10
384
563

A valid solution, but not the one I had in mind. – DenverCoder1 Mar 02 '20 at 18:05
(Your city is the same as mine but the other three are different) – DenverCoder1 Mar 02 '20 at 18:42
Your second answer is the one I had in mind. Very good! – DenverCoder1 Mar 02 '20 at 21:55

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 17:20

12

Are you:

Palau?

With two, I'm a city

L.A. (Los Angeles, California)

With three, I'm a town

Lau, Town in Nigeria (and others)

With four, I'm a village

Pala, Village in Estonia (and others)

With all five, I'm a country

Palau

answered Mar 02 '20 at 17:20

TwoBitOperation

14,953
1
41
95

2

A valid solution, but not the one I had in mind. – DenverCoder1 Mar 02 '20 at 18:05

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 21:22

8

Maybe you had in mind the country

Spain

With two, I'm a city

AI city in Ohio

With three, I'm a town

Pai town in Thailand

With four, I'm a village

(Talwandi) Pain village in India

With all five, I'm a country

Spain

answered Mar 02 '20 at 21:22

ThomasL

12,167
3
24
100

Correct! This is the answer I had in mind. – DenverCoder1 Mar 02 '20 at 21:53

With all five, I'm a country

3 Answers3