Croix de Guerre vs medal

Croix de Guerre and medal both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
Croix de Guerre	Yes	No	No	No
medal	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, medal is a hypernym of Croix de Guerre; that is, medal is a word with a broader meaning than Croix de Guerre:

Croix de Guerre: a French military decoration for gallantry
medal: an award for winning a championship or commemorating some other event

Other hypernyms of Croix de Guerre include decoration, laurel wreath, medallion, palm, ribbon.

Croix de Guerre (noun)	medal (noun)
a French military decoration for gallantry	an award for winning a championship or commemorating some other event