decarboxylate vs alter

decarboxylate and alter both are verbs.

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

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

Other hypernyms of decarboxylate include change, modify.

decarboxylate (verb)	alter (verb)
lose a carboxyl group	remove the ovaries of
remove a carboxyl group from (a chemical compound)	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