splintering vs breaking

splintering and breaking both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
splintering	Yes	No	No	No
breaking	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, breaking is a hypernym of splintering; that is, breaking is a word with a broader meaning than splintering:

Other hypernyms of splintering include break, breakage.

splintering (noun)	breaking (noun)
the act of chipping something	the act of breaking something