bloodletting vs slaughter

bloodletting and slaughter both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
bloodletting	Yes	No	No	No
slaughter	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, slaughter is a hypernym of bloodletting; that is, slaughter is a word with a broader meaning than bloodletting:

Other hypernyms of bloodletting include butchery, carnage, mass murder, massacre.

bloodletting (noun)	slaughter (noun)
formerly used as a treatment to reduce excess blood (one of the four humors of medieval medicine)	the killing of animals (as for food)
indiscriminate slaughter	the savage and excessive killing of many people
	a sound defeat

bloodletting (verb)	slaughter (verb)
	kill a large number of people indiscriminately
	kill (animals) usually for food consumption