benight vs whelm

benight and whelm both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
benight	No	No	Yes	No
whelm	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, whelm is a hypernym of benight; that is, whelm is a word with a broader meaning than benight:

Other hypernyms of benight include overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, sweep over.

benight (verb)	whelm (verb)
make darker and difficult to perceive by sight	overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness	to neither fail to meet nor exceed expectation
overtake with darkness or night