ayatollah vs religious leader

ayatollah and religious leader both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ayatollah	Yes	No	No	No
religious leader	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, religious leader is a hypernym of ayatollah; that is, religious leader is a word with a broader meaning than ayatollah:

ayatollah: a high-ranking Shiite religious leader who is regarded as an authority on religious law and its interpretation and who has political power as well
religious leader: leader of a religious order

ayatollah (noun)	religious leader (noun)
a high-ranking Shiite religious leader who is regarded as an authority on religious law and its interpretation and who has political power as well	leader of a religious order