novitiate vs period of time

novitiate and period of time both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
novitiate	Yes	No	No	No
period of time	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, period of time is a hypernym of novitiate; that is, period of time is a word with a broader meaning than novitiate:

novitiate: the period during which you are a novice (especially in a religious order)
period of time: an amount of time

Other hypernyms of novitiate include period, time period.

novitiate (noun)	period of time (noun)
someone who has entered a religious order but has not taken final vows	an amount of time
the period during which you are a novice (especially in a religious order)