denial vs speech act

denial and speech act both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
denial	Yes	No	No	No
speech act	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, speech act is a hypernym of denial; that is, speech act is a word with a broader meaning than denial:

denial (noun)	speech act (noun)
a defendant's answer or plea denying the truth of the charges against him	the use of language to perform some act
renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others
the act of refusing to comply (as with a request)
the act of asserting that something alleged is not true
(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughts