What is the difference between a cold war and a war?

Hi the Cold war was the period from 1945 till 1990 it ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The World Wars were two wars one from 1914-1918 and the other from 1939-1945. But to answer your question the cold war was more a fear that the two world powers could start the third world war(Soviet Union and the United States of America). The Cold war was practically speaking not a real war.

The outbreak of this was closest on the Cuban missile crisis.

All in all Cold war was more a race between the two world powers of that time and the two world wars were simply "real" wars which were fought in Europe and in Asia.