gerbil vs sand rat

gerbil and sand rat both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
gerbil	Yes	No	No	No
sand rat	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, sand rat is a hyponym of gerbil; that is, sand rat is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than gerbil:

gerbil: small Old World burrowing desert rodent with long soft pale fur and hind legs adapted for leaping
sand rat: southern European gerbil

Other hyponyms of gerbil include jird, Meriones unguiculatus, tamarisk gerbil, Meriones longifrons.

gerbil (noun)	sand rat (noun)
small Old World burrowing desert rodent with long soft pale fur and hind legs adapted for leaping	southern European gerbil
	small nearly naked African mole rat of desert areas