defendant vs litigant

defendant and litigant both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
defendant	Yes	No	No	No
litigant	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, litigant is a hypernym of defendant; that is, litigant is a word with a broader meaning than defendant:

defendant: a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused
litigant: (law) a party to a lawsuit; someone involved in litigation

Other hypernyms of defendant include litigator.

defendant (noun)	litigant (noun)
a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused	(law) a party to a lawsuit; someone involved in litigation