depress vs alter

depress and alter both are verbs.

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

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

Other hypernyms of depress include change, modify.

depress (verb)	alter (verb)
lessen the activity or force of	remove the ovaries of
press down	become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence
cause to drop or sink	cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
lower someone's spirits; make downhearted	insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
lower (prices or markets)	make an alteration to