variety vs difference

variety and difference both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
variety	Yes	No	No	No
difference	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, difference is a hypernym of variety; that is, difference is a word with a broader meaning than variety:

variety (noun)	difference (noun)
noticeable heterogeneity	the quality of being unlike or dissimilar
a difference that is usually pleasant	a disagreement or argument about something important
a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality	a variation that deviates from the standard or norm
a show consisting of a series of short unrelated performances	the number that remains after subtraction; the number that when added to the subtrahend gives the minuend
(biology) a taxonomic category consisting of members of a species that differ from others of the same species in minor but heritable characteristics	a significant change
a collection containing a variety of sorts of things