TOEFL Complete the Words is the first item type in the TOEFL Reading test: a short academic text in which ten words are missing the second half of their letters, and you type the missing letters. This page explains the task, gives you a free practice text with answers, and shows what our learners' results say about it.
Complete the Words is new in the 2026 test. It looks like a vocabulary task, but most of the gaps are decided by grammar, so you can solve them without knowing every word. The TOEFL reading practice guide covers the other two item types.
Table Of Contents
What Is TOEFL Complete the Words?
TOEFL Complete the Words is a short academic text of about 80 words with ten gaps. Each gap is a word with its first letters shown and its last letters missing, and you type the missing letters. The texts come from subjects like biology, history, and geography, and the gaps fall on words at regular distances, so small grammar words are gapped as often as academic words.
Text |
Gaps |
What you type |
Time |
|---|---|---|---|
One academic paragraph, about 80 words |
10 words, each missing about half of its letters |
The missing letters only. Capital letters and the shown letters stay as they are. |
About 4 minutes per text in our tests, inside the one timer for the whole section |
The first sentence of a text is complete, so you always know the topic before the first gap. A gap can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, a determiner such as these or several, or a modal verb such as might. The letters you can see are the start of the word, which is why the kind of word matters more than the subject of the text.
TOEFL Complete the Words Sample Question
Here is a free TOEFL Complete the Words sample question. Type the missing letters in the boxes, then open the answers. Try to finish in 4 minutes.
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spellcheck Answers1. ve (hive)
2. ves (moves)
3. ure (figure)
4. tion (direction)
5. ows (shows)
6. gth (length)
7. low (follow)
8. sely (closely)
9. ows (allows)
10. eral (several)
Look at gaps 2, 5, 7, and 9. They are a verb after a subject each time: it moves, the direction shows, other bees follow, this system allows. You can fill them from the grammar alone, and the first letters confirm the word. Gap 10 is an adjective before a noun (several kilometers), and gap 8 is an adverb ending in -ly.
What We Learned from 1.31 Million TOEFL Complete the Words Questions
Our practice-test data shows that Complete the Words is a speed task where learners lose points on easy words. Here are the numbers, from 131,104 Complete the Words texts answered in our adaptive practice tests.
- Learners get 65.2% of questions right. In 1.31 million questions, about one gap in three was wrong or left empty. In single practice questions without the timer, the rate is 74.8%.
- A gap takes about 12 seconds. A whole text takes about 2 minutes, half of the 4 minutes our test allows for it. The time is not the problem. The problem is choosing the wrong kind of word.
- Complete the Words sits between the other two item types. Read in Daily Life texts are answered 83.5% correctly and Academic Passage questions 62.0%.
Figures are from the BestMyTest TOEFL learner performance data: 72,075 TOEFL Reading sections of our adaptive practice tests, completed by 47,377 learners between September 2025 and October 2026, including 131,104 Complete the Words texts and 1,311,038 questions, plus 230,774 single Complete the Words practice attempts. Percentages are correct answers divided by questions answered. Last updated 8 October 2026.
The Eight Kinds of Missing Word in TOEFL Complete the Words
A missing word in TOEFL Complete the Words is one of eight kinds, and each kind has a clue next to the gap. Decide the kind first, then use the letters you can see. The table gives the clue and one example for each kind.
Kind of word |
Clue next to the gap |
Example |
|---|---|---|
Noun (subject or object) | a, the, this, or an adjective before the gap; a verb or preposition that needs an object | Researchers measured the temp___ (temperature) |
Noun in a transition phrase | The start of a connector you know: for ___, in ___, as a ___ | As a res___, the trial was repeated (result) |
Verb | A subject before the gap; a helping verb such as is, has, or can | Plants req___ sunlight (require) |
Modal verb | A short gap before a plain base verb | The change mi___ affect the climate (might) |
Adjective | A noun right after the gap, or a linking verb such as be or seem before it | a reli___ method (reliable) |
Adverb | The gap changes how or how much; the word often ends in -ly | recorded the data care___ (carefully) |
Preposition | The gap shows place, time, direction, or means between two nouns | The border lies bet___ two regions (between) |
Determiner | The gap introduces a noun and says which one or how many | Sev___ studies reached the same conclusion (Several) |
Many learners expect an academic text to test only words like photosynthesis. In fact the task removes letters from words at regular distances, so a preposition, a determiner, or the noun inside as a result is gapped just as often. Do not reject an easy answer because the text sounds difficult.
TOEFL Complete the Words Tips
The best TOEFL Complete the Words tip is to decide the kind of word before you look at the letters. Our learners lose most points on small grammar words, not on academic words, so grammar is the faster route to the answer. Three tips cover most gaps.
TOEFL Complete the Words Tip 1: Ask What Job the Word Does
Read the words on both sides of the gap and ask what the sentence needs there. A subject with no verb needs a verb. A gap before a noun needs an adjective or a determiner. A gap between two nouns is often a preposition. Then the letters you can see will confirm your choice, and you type the rest.
TOEFL Complete the Words Tip 2: Skip a Hard Gap and Come Back
If a gap does not come to you, leave it and fill the others. The words you fill in often make the hard gap clear, because the sentence around it is complete. You can return to any gap while the text is on the screen.
TOEFL Complete the Words Tip 3: Check the Word Endings
A verb must fit its subject and its time, so check for an -s, an -ed, or an -ing at the end. A plural noun needs its -s. One wrong letter makes the whole gap wrong, so read the finished sentence once before you move on.
TOEFL Complete the Words Time
There is no separate TOEFL Complete the Words time limit. One timer runs for the whole Reading section, 50 questions in about 30 minutes, and our practice tests give each Complete the Words text about 4 minutes of that time. Our learners finish a text in about 2 minutes, so the task leaves time for the academic passages, which take about 8 minutes each.
Spend the time on the gaps, not on the text. The first sentence tells you the topic, and you do not need to understand every word to fill the gaps. If two minutes have passed and one gap is still empty, type your best guess and move on.
TOEFL Complete the Words Practice
Our TOEFL Complete the Words practice questions look and work like the real task. You type the letters in the text, the question is scored as you go, and every gap has its answer and the kind of word it tests. Three practice texts are free.
- Complete the Words Practice 1: a free text with ten gaps, scored as you type.
- Complete the Words Practice 2 and Practice 3: free with a free account.
- Sample Test 1: a free full-length adaptive TOEFL practice test with Complete the Words inside the timed Reading section.
- TOEFL reading practice PDF: three Complete the Words texts on paper, with an answer key.
- TOEFL reading question types: the other nine question types with a sample of each.
Create a free account to open the Complete the Words lesson, which teaches the eight kinds of missing word with a guided exercise for each one, and to see all our Complete the Words practice texts in the TOEFL Tutor App.
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