cease vs discontinue

cease is a noun but discontinue is not a noun.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
cease	Yes	No	Yes	No
discontinue	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, cease and discontinue are synonyms defined as:

Other synonyms of cease include give up, lay off, quit, stop.

As verbs, discontinue is a hyponym of cease; that is, discontinue is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than cease:

cease: have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
discontinue: come to or be at an end

cease (noun)	discontinue (noun)
(`cease' is a noun only in the phrase `without cease') end

cease (verb)	discontinue (verb)
put an end to a state or an activity	prevent completion
have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical	put an end to a state or an activity
	come to or be at an end