ruralist vs exponent

ruralist and exponent both are nouns.

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

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

Other hypernyms of ruralist include advocate, advocator, proponent.

ruralist (noun)	exponent (noun)
an advocate of rural living	a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself
a man who lives in the country and has country ways	a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
	someone who expounds and interprets or explains