academic degree vs honor

academic degree and honor both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
academic degree	Yes	No	No	No
honor	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, honor is a hypernym of academic degree; that is, honor is a word with a broader meaning than academic degree:

academic degree: an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study
honor: a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction

Other hypernyms of academic degree include accolade, award, honour, laurels.

academic degree (noun)	honor (noun)
an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study	the quality of being honorable and having a good name
	a woman's virtue or chastity
	a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction
	the state of being honored