litigant vs defendant

litigant and defendant both are nouns.

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

As nouns, defendant is a hyponym of litigant; that is, defendant is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than litigant:

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

Other hyponyms of litigant include suspect, appellant, plaintiff in error, filer, complainant, plaintiff, prevailing party.

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