attendance vs appearing

attendance and appearing both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
attendance	Yes	No	No	No
appearing	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, appearing is a hyponym of attendance; that is, appearing is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than attendance:

attendance: the act of being present (at a meeting or event etc.)
appearing: formal attendance (in court or at a hearing) of a party in an action

Other hyponyms of attendance include appearance, coming into court, presence, turnout.

attendance (noun)	appearing (noun)
the act of being present (at a meeting or event etc.)	formal attendance (in court or at a hearing) of a party in an action
the number of people that are present
the frequency with which a person is present