couscous vs pasta

couscous and pasta both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
couscous	Yes	No	No	No
pasta	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, pasta is a hypernym of couscous; that is, pasta is a word with a broader meaning than couscous:

Other hypernyms of couscous include alimentary paste.

couscous (noun)	pasta (noun)
a pasta made in northern Africa of crushed and steamed semolina	shaped and dried dough made from flour and water and sometimes egg
a spicy dish that originated in northern Africa; consists of pasta steamed with a meat and vegetable stew	a dish that contains pasta as its main ingredient