breaking off vs gap

breaking off and gap both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
breaking off	Yes	No	No	No
gap	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, gap is a hypernym of breaking off; that is, gap is a word with a broader meaning than breaking off:

Other hypernyms of breaking off include break, disruption, interruption.

breaking off (noun)	gap (noun)
an instance of sudden interruption	an act of delaying or interrupting the continuity
	a narrow opening
	a conspicuous disparity or difference as between two figures
	a difference (especially an unfortunate difference) between two opinions or two views or two situations
	an open or empty space in or between things
	a pass between mountain peaks; geomorphological term for the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks

breaking off (verb)	gap (verb)
	make an opening or gap in