approval vs recognition

approval and recognition both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
approval	Yes	No	No	No
recognition	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, recognition is a hyponym of approval; that is, recognition is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than approval:

approval (noun)	recognition (noun)
the formal act of approving	designation by the chair granting a person the right to speak in a deliberative body
a message expressing a favorable opinion	the process of recognizing something or someone by remembering
a feeling of liking something or someone good	an acceptance (as of a claim) as true and valid
acceptance as satisfactory	coming to understand something clearly and distinctly
	approval
	the explicit and formal acknowledgement of a government or of the national independence of a country
	(biology) the ability of one molecule to attach to another molecule that has a complementary shape
	the state or quality of being recognized or acknowledged