scute vs cuticle

scute and cuticle both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
scute	Yes	No	No	No
cuticle	Yes	No	No	No

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

scute: large bony or horny plate as on an armadillo or turtle or the underside of a snake
cuticle: hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles

Other hyponyms of scute include carapace, shell, shield.

scute (noun)	cuticle (noun)
large bony or horny plate as on an armadillo or turtle or the underside of a snake	hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles
	the outer layer of the skin covering the exterior body surface of vertebrates
	the dead skin at the base of a fingernail or toenail