cards vs whist

cards and whist both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
cards	Yes	No	No	No
whist	Yes	No	No	No

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

cards: a game played with playing cards
whist: a card game for four players who form two partnerships; a pack of 52 cards is dealt and each side scores one point for each trick it takes in excess of six

cards (noun)	whist (noun)
a game played with playing cards	a card game for four players who form two partnerships; a pack of 52 cards is dealt and each side scores one point for each trick it takes in excess of six