wailing vs tears

wailing and tears both are nouns.

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

As nouns, tears is a hypernym of wailing; that is, tears is a word with a broader meaning than wailing:

wailing: loud cries made while weeping
tears: the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds)

Other hypernyms of wailing include crying, weeping.

wailing (noun)	tears (noun)
loud cries made while weeping	the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds)

wailing (adjective)	tears (adjective)
vocally expressing grief or sorrow or resembling such expression