Denial在这里指的是对原告某一事实主张（allegation）的否认。

Qualified denial: A qualified denial involves denying particular portion of particular allegation.有限的否认， 意思是对原告的某一事实主张，只否认其中的一部分，而保留或承认其余部分。

与之相关的还有general denial （整体反驳、笼统否认）、specific denial （逐条反驳、具体否认）、DKI （无从表态、间接否认）等。

General denial （整体反驳、笼统否认），指被告否认或反驳起诉状中的全部主张。A general denial consists of one sentence simply stating that “Defendant denies each and every allegation of plaintiff’s complaint”. General denial can be used when defendant wants to contest the basic sum and substance of the complaint even though a few of the allegations are true. U.S. federal courts limit the use of general denials to those cases where defendant actually intends to controvert everything in the complaint. This virtually eliminates the use of general denial since it will be an exceedingly rare complaint in which none of the facts alleged is true.

Specific denial（逐条反驳、具体否认），指被告在答辩状中对原告所主张的事实进行逐一反驳或对特定实体事实所作的否认。A specific denial involves a sentence-by-sentence or paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of the complaint, denying only those allegations that defendant intends to contest.

DKI （无从表态、间接否认）：DKI (Don’t Know Information) denotes that defendant doesn’t have sufficient information to form a belief as to the truth of an allegation. If defendant lacks the knowledge or information needed to respond to the truth or falsity of an allegation, he may say so in the answer. This has the effect of a denial. 就原告提出的某一主张而言，如果被告一未否认，二未间接否认，则被告被视为承认该等主张。