ex vs adult male

ex and adult male both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ex	Yes	Yes	No	No
adult male	Yes	No	No	No

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

Other hypernyms of ex include man.

ex (noun)	adult male (noun)
the 24th letter of the Roman alphabet	an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
a woman who was formerly a particular man's wife
a man who was formerly a certain woman's husband

ex (adjective)	adult male (adjective)
out of fashion