gens vs folk

gens and folk both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
gens	Yes	No	No	No
folk	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, folk is a hypernym of gens; that is, folk is a word with a broader meaning than gens:

Other hypernyms of gens include family, family line, kinfolk, kinsfolk, phratry, sept.

gens (noun)	folk (noun)
family based on male descent	the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community
	people in general (often used in the plural)
	a social division of (usually preliterate) people
	people descended from a common ancestor