famine vs lack

famine and lack both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
famine	Yes	No	No	No
lack	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, lack is a hypernym of famine; that is, lack is a word with a broader meaning than famine:

Other hypernyms of famine include deficiency, want.

famine (noun)	lack (noun)
a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death	the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable
an acute insufficiency

famine (verb)	lack (verb)
	be without
	To be insufficiently prepared