descendant vs relative

descendant and relative both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
descendant	Yes	Yes	No	No
relative	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, relative is a hypernym of descendant; that is, relative is a word with a broader meaning than descendant:

Other hypernyms of descendant include relation.

descendant (noun)	relative (noun)
a person considered as descended from some ancestor	an animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus)
	a person related by blood or marriage

descendant (adjective)	relative (adjective)
going or coming down	estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete
proceeding by descent from an ancestor	properly related in size or degree or other measurable characteristics; usually followed by `to'