abbess vs adult female

abbess and adult female both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
abbess	Yes	No	No	No
adult female	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, adult female is a hypernym of abbess; that is, adult female is a word with a broader meaning than abbess:

Other hypernyms of abbess include superior, woman.

abbess (noun)	adult female (noun)
the superior of a group of nuns	an adult female person (as opposed to a man)