deactivate vs alter

deactivate and alter both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
deactivate	No	No	Yes	No
alter	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, alter is a hypernym of deactivate; that is, alter is a word with a broader meaning than deactivate:

Other hypernyms of deactivate include change, modify.

deactivate (verb)	alter (verb)
make inactive	remove the ovaries of
remove from active military status or reassign	become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence
	cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
	insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
	make an alteration to