Ala. vs South

Ala. and South both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
Ala.	Yes	No	No	No
South	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, South is a hypernym of Ala.; that is, South is a word with a broader meaning than Ala.:

Ala.: a state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico; one of the Confederate states during the American Civil War
South: the region of the United States lying to the south of the Mason-Dixon line

Other hypernyms of Ala. include Southern United States.

Ala. (noun)	South (noun)
a state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico; one of the Confederate states during the American Civil War	the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861
	the region of the United States lying to the south of the Mason-Dixon line