tears vs sniveling

tears and sniveling both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
tears	Yes	No	No	No
sniveling	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, sniveling is a hyponym of tears; that is, sniveling is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than tears:

tears: the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds)
sniveling: whining in a tearful manner

Other hyponyms of tears include snivel, sob, sobbing, bawling, wailing.

tears (noun)	sniveling (noun)
the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds)	whining in a tearful manner