ethane vs paraffin

ethane and paraffin both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ethane	Yes	No	No	No
paraffin	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, paraffin is a hypernym of ethane; that is, paraffin is a word with a broader meaning than ethane:

ethane: a colorless odorless alkane gas used as fuel
paraffin: a series of non-aromatic saturated hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH(2n+2)

Other hypernyms of ethane include hydrocarbon, alkane, alkane series, methane series, paraffin series.

ethane (noun)	paraffin (noun)
a colorless odorless alkane gas used as fuel	from crude petroleum; used for candles and for preservative or waterproof coatings
	(British usage) kerosine
	a series of non-aromatic saturated hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH(2n+2)