vis major vs cataclysm

vis major and cataclysm both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
vis major	Yes	No	No	No
cataclysm	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, cataclysm is a hypernym of vis major; that is, cataclysm is a word with a broader meaning than vis major:

vis major: a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events
cataclysm: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune

Other hypernyms of vis major include calamity, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy.

vis major (noun)	cataclysm (noun)
a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events	an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
	a sudden violent change in the earth's surface