scouring vs cleaning

scouring and cleaning both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
scouring	Yes	No	No	No
cleaning	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, cleaning is a hypernym of scouring; that is, cleaning is a word with a broader meaning than scouring:

scouring: the act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it with a brush and soap and water
cleaning: the act of making something clean

Other hypernyms of scouring include cleansing, cleanup.

scouring (noun)	cleaning (noun)
the act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it with a brush and soap and water	the act of making something clean
moving over territory to search for something