Cloze Worksheet Generator
Making a gap-fill by hand is deleting words from a passage, and the mistake is always the same: the key drifts from the paper. A word is deleted and not written down, a gap swallows the comma that was attached to it, two gaps end up with the same number, and nobody reads the sheet back before it is handed out. This takes the passage you paste in, removes words by a rule you choose, and then checks the only thing worth checking — that putting the answers back into the gaps, in order, gives you the passage you started with, every character of it.
What this generator does
Removes words from your passage by the rule you choose, prints the passage with numbered gaps at the size of paper you are using, and puts a numbered key on a sheet of its own.
How to use this tool
- Paste or type the passage.
- Choose what to take out: every so many words, the longest words, words you name, or gaps spread through the passage.
- Decide on a word bank, first-letter hints, and whether each gap is drawn the length of its word.
- Pick the paper and print size, then make the sheet and print it.
- Show the answers for a numbered key on a sheet of its own.
Understanding the controls
- The passage
- Paste or type it, up to five thousand characters. It never leaves your browser.
- What to take out
- Every so many words; the longest words; only the words you name, everywhere they appear; or gaps spread evenly through the passage so no sentence is left untouched.
- Shortest word to take
- Words shorter than this are always left in, so a sheet is not full of gaps where 'a' and 'of' used to be.
- Word bank
- Prints the removed words above the passage, in a different order.
- First-letter hints
- Puts the opening letter in front of each gap.
- Gap length
- Draw every gap the same width, or draw each one the length of the word that came out of it.
- Paper size and print size
- A4, A5, A3, US Letter or Legal, portrait or sideways, with the margin in millimetres and a compact, standard or large-print setting.
- Seed
- A word gives back exactly the same sheet.
Common use cases
- A comprehension exercise from a passage a class has just read
- A vocabulary sheet where the words you name are the ones removed
- A language exercise with the connectives taken out
- A revision sheet built from your own notes
- A differentiated pair: the same passage with a word bank and without
How this generator works
The passage is split once into words and the punctuation and spacing between them, and both the sheet and the key are built from that one list — so there is no second pass over the text where the two could come apart. A gap is a numbered line standing where a word was, not a word replaced inside a string, which is what stops 'the cat sat on the mat' losing the wrong 'the'. The finished sheet is then checked by putting the answers back: the rebuilt passage has to equal the one you pasted in, character for character, the gaps have to be numbered straight through in reading order, and the word bank has to hold exactly the words that were taken out and no others. None of the rules looks at what a word means — words are removed by position, by length, or because you named them. Deciding which words are the important ones would be marking somebody's comprehension exercise for them.
Randomness and fairness
Where the spread-out gaps fall is decided using the browser's secure generator. A seed reproduces exactly the same sheet — deterministic rather than cryptographic, so the same sheet can be printed twice. A seed brings back the same passage with the same words removed, which is there for reproducibility, not cryptographic strength.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Limitations and good to know
- The passage is yours. Nothing here writes one, and nothing here checks what it says.
- Words are removed by position, length or name, never by what they mean or what part of speech they are.
- Two gaps can have the same answer. That is a real gap-fill, but with a word bank those gaps can be filled either way round and both are right — the sheet says so when it happens.
- Up to sixty gaps, in a passage of up to five thousand characters.
- One passage at a time, and nothing is kept between visits.
Privacy and your data
The sheet is built in your browser. The passage you paste is never transmitted or stored.
Related generators
- Spelling Worksheet GeneratorMissing-letter, unscramble, ordering and syllable sheets where no question can be answered two different ways.
- Fill-In Crossword GeneratorA criss-cross grid with no clues: the words are printed underneath, grouped by length, and the puzzle is working out where each one goes.
- Word Search GeneratorMake a printable word search from your own word list, with a grid size and difficulty you choose and an answer key that is actually correct.
- Handwriting Practice Sheet GeneratorPrintable handwriting paper drawn to real letter proportions — four lines to a row at the size you choose, with your own words to trace and blank rows to copy into.
- Multiple-Choice Test GeneratorA maths test with four options a question, no accidentally-correct distractor, and the answer spread across the letters.