foreign aid vs assistance

foreign aid and assistance both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
foreign aid	Yes	No	No	No
assistance	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, assistance is a hypernym of foreign aid; that is, assistance is a word with a broader meaning than foreign aid:

foreign aid: aid (such as economic or military assistance) provided to one nation by another
assistance: gift of money or other material help to support a person or cause

Other hypernyms of foreign aid include aid, economic aid, economic assistance, financial aid, financial assistance.

foreign aid (noun)	assistance (noun)
aid (such as economic or military assistance) provided to one nation by another	the activity of contributing to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose
	a person or thing that is a resource that helps make something easier or possible to do
	gift of money or other material help to support a person or cause