father figure vs adult male

father figure and adult male both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
father figure	Yes	No	No	No
adult male	Yes	No	No	No

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

Other hypernyms of father figure include man.

father figure (noun)	adult male (noun)
a man who takes over all the functions of the real father	an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)