# TOEFL Complete the Words Practice

Master vocabulary in context.

## The Complete the Words Task

This is a new Reading task introduced in the 2026 redesign. You read a short paragraph where several words are missing letters. Instead of choosing from options, you must type the full word — usually with the first few letters given as a hint (for example, sugg____).

## Why it feels hard

Most students who struggle here treat it as a vocabulary quiz and try to recall a word in isolation. It isn't. It's a *reading* task: the sentence around the gap, plus the letter hint, almost always narrows the answer to one word. The skill is using both clues together instead of guessing from the hint alone.

## A 4-step strategy that works

- **Read the whole sentence first — then the one before it.** Don't look at the gap in isolation. The meaning you need is usually in the surrounding words.

- **Decide the part of speech.** Is the missing word a noun, verb, or adjective? "the dire_____" must be a noun (direction); "birds sugg____" must be a verb (suggest/suggests).

- **Use the letter hint to confirm, not to guess.** Think of the word from meaning first, then check it starts with the given letters and fits the length.

- **Match grammar.** Get the ending right — plural -s, past tense -ed, -tion. Spelling counts, so re-read the finished sentence to make sure it sounds natural.

## Worked example

"Recent research sugg____ that birds use the Earth's magnetic field to find their dire_____."

- sugg____ follows "research" (singular), so it's a verb in the third person: **suggests**.

- dire_____ follows "their" and "find", so it's a noun: **direction**.

Notice you didn't need to "know" rare vocabulary — you reasoned it out from context and grammar. That's the whole game.

## How to actually improve

Memorising word lists barely moves your score on this task. Reps do. Below you can do real Complete-the-Words sets — **free, no payment** — built to match the 2026 exam. Do a few back-to-back, check the answers, and the pattern starts to click.