afternoon tea vs meal

afternoon tea and meal both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
afternoon tea	Yes	No	No	No
meal	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, meal is a hypernym of afternoon tea; that is, meal is a word with a broader meaning than afternoon tea:

Other hypernyms of afternoon tea include repast.

afternoon tea (noun)	meal (noun)
a light midafternoon meal of tea and sandwiches or cakes	the food served and eaten at one time
	coarsely ground foodstuff; especially seeds of various cereal grasses or pulse
	any of the occasions for eating food that occur by custom or habit at more or less fixed times