drama vs melodrama

drama and melodrama both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
drama	Yes	No	No	No
melodrama	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, melodrama is a hyponym of drama; that is, melodrama is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than drama:

drama: the literary genre of works intended for the theater
melodrama: an extravagant comedy in which action is more salient than characterization

Other hyponyms of drama include closet drama, comedy, tragedy, liturgical drama.

drama (noun)	melodrama (noun)
the quality of being arresting or highly emotional	an extravagant comedy in which action is more salient than characterization
the literary genre of works intended for the theater
a dramatic work intended for performance by actors on a stage
an episode that is turbulent or highly emotional