sycophant vs adulator

sycophant and adulator both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
sycophant	Yes	No	No	No
adulator	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, adulator is a hypernym of sycophant; that is, adulator is a word with a broader meaning than sycophant:

sycophant: a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
adulator: a person who uses flattery

Other hypernyms of sycophant include flatterer.

sycophant (noun)	adulator (noun)
a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage	a person who uses flattery