cafe au lait vs coffee

cafe au lait and coffee both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
cafe au lait	Yes	No	No	No
coffee	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, coffee is a hypernym of cafe au lait; that is, coffee is a word with a broader meaning than cafe au lait:

Other hypernyms of cafe au lait include java.

cafe au lait (noun)	coffee (noun)
equal parts of coffee and hot milk	a medium brown to dark-brown color
	a beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans
	a seed of the coffee tree; ground to make coffee
	any of several small trees and shrubs native to the tropical Old World yielding coffee beans