terminate vs lay off

terminate and lay off both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
terminate	No	No	Yes	No
lay off	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, lay off is a hyponym of terminate; that is, lay off is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than terminate:

terminate: terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position
lay off: dismiss, usually for economic reasons

Other hyponyms of terminate include retire, pension off, clean out, furlough, squeeze out, dismiss, drop, send away, send packing.

terminate (verb)	lay off (verb)
bring to an end or halt	dismiss, usually for economic reasons
terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position	put an end to a state or an activity
have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
be the end of; be the last or concluding part of