sweeten vs alter

sweeten and alter both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
sweeten	No	No	Yes	No
alter	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, alter is a hypernym of sweeten; that is, alter is a word with a broader meaning than sweeten:

Other hypernyms of sweeten include change, modify.

sweeten (verb)	alter (verb)
make sweeter, more pleasant, or more agreeable	remove the ovaries of
make sweeter in taste	become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence
	cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
	insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
	make an alteration to