lay off vs terminate

lay off and terminate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
lay off	No	No	Yes	No
terminate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, terminate is a hypernym of lay off; that is, terminate is a word with a broader meaning than lay off:

lay off: dismiss, usually for economic reasons
terminate: terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position

Other hypernyms of lay off include can, dismiss, displace, fire, force out, give notice, give the axe, give the sack, sack, send away.

lay off (verb)	terminate (verb)
dismiss, usually for economic reasons	bring to an end or halt
put an end to a state or an activity	terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position
	have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
	be the end of; be the last or concluding part of