white plague vs dependence

white plague and dependence both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
white plague	Yes	No	No	No
dependence	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, dependence is a hypernym of white plague; that is, dependence is a word with a broader meaning than white plague:

white plague: an addiction to a drug (especially a narcotic drug)
dependence: being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (especially alcohol or narcotic drugs)

Other hypernyms of white plague include addiction, dependance, dependency, habituation.

white plague (noun)	dependence (noun)
involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body	the state of relying on or being controlled by someone or something else
an addiction to a drug (especially a narcotic drug)	being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (especially alcohol or narcotic drugs)