vade mecum vs reference work

vade mecum and reference work both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
vade mecum	Yes	No	No	No
reference work	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, reference work is a hypernym of vade mecum; that is, reference work is a word with a broader meaning than vade mecum:

vade mecum: a concise reference book providing specific information about a subject or location
reference work: a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts

Other hypernyms of vade mecum include book of facts, reference, reference book.

vade mecum (noun)	reference work (noun)
a concise reference book providing specific information about a subject or location	a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts