male child vs male

male child and male both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
male child	Yes	No	No	No
male	Yes	Yes	No	No

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

Other hypernyms of male child include male person.

male child (noun)	male (noun)
a youthful male person	an animal that produces gametes (spermatozoa) that can fertilize female gametes (ova)
	a person who belongs to the sex that cannot have babies

male child (adjective)	male (adjective)
	being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces gametes (spermatozoa) that perform the fertilizing function in generation
	for or pertaining to or composed of men or boys
	characteristic of a man