sheikh vs adult male

sheikh and adult male both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
sheikh	Yes	No	No	No
adult male	Yes	No	No	No

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

Other hypernyms of sheikh include man, ruler, swayer.

sheikh (noun)	adult male (noun)
the leader of an Arab village or family	an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)