ritualist vs exponent

ritualist and exponent both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ritualist	Yes	No	No	No
exponent	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, exponent is a hypernym of ritualist; that is, exponent is a word with a broader meaning than ritualist:

Other hypernyms of ritualist include advocate, advocator, proponent.

ritualist (noun)	exponent (noun)
an advocate of strict observance of ritualistic forms	a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself
a social anthropologist who is expert on rites and ceremonies	a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
	someone who expounds and interprets or explains