area studies vs liberal arts

area studies and liberal arts both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
area studies	Yes	No	No	No
liberal arts	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, liberal arts is a hypernym of area studies; that is, liberal arts is a word with a broader meaning than area studies:

area studies: an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural region.
liberal arts: studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)

Other hypernyms of area studies include arts, humanistic discipline, humanities.

area studies (noun)	liberal arts (noun)
an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural region.	studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)