small talk vs confabulation

small talk and confabulation both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
small talk	Yes	No	No	No
confabulation	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, confabulation is a hypernym of small talk; that is, confabulation is a word with a broader meaning than small talk:

Other hypernyms of small talk include chat, confab, schmoose, schmooze.

small talk (noun)	confabulation (noun)
light informal conversation for social occasions	(psychiatry) a plausible but imagined memory that fills in gaps in what is remembered
	an informal conversation