misdemeanor vs criminal offense

misdemeanor and criminal offense both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
misdemeanor	Yes	No	No	No
criminal offense	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, criminal offense is a hypernym of misdemeanor; that is, criminal offense is a word with a broader meaning than misdemeanor:

misdemeanor: a crime less serious than a felony
criminal offense: (criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act

Other hypernyms of misdemeanor include crime, criminal offence, law-breaking.

misdemeanor (noun)	criminal offense (noun)
a crime less serious than a felony	(criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act