Cloze Test Generator
Paste a passage and the generator turns it into a cloze worksheet: numbered blanks in place of every Nth word, or of exactly the words you list, plus a shuffled word bank and an answer key. Copy it into a document or print it. Free, no sign-up, and your text stays in your browser.
Blanking mode
Words under 4 letters and capitalized proper-noun-looking words are skipped.
How to Use the Cloze Test Generator
- 1. Paste your passage. Use text that students can read without help, usually a paragraph or two.
- 2. Choose how to blank it. Every Nth word blanks one eligible word in N, where N runs from 5 to 12 and starts at 7. Blank these words blanks every whole-word match of a comma-separated list, such as photosynthesis, chlorophyll, glucose.
- 3. Press Generate Worksheet. Blanks appear as a line of underscores followed by a number. The word bank and answer key can each be shown or hidden with their buttons; Regenerate reshuffles the word bank.
- 4. Copy or print. Copy Worksheet copies the passage and the word bank as plain text. Print prints the worksheet, word bank and, if you have shown it, the answer key. Hide the key for the student copy.
What a Cloze Test Is
Wilson Taylor introduced the cloze procedure in Journalism Quarterly in 1953 as a way to measure how readable a text is. The name comes from closure, the gestalt idea that people mentally complete a pattern with a gap, as when a broken circle is seen as a whole one. Taylor deleted words by simple counting, such as every fifth word, without regard to what each word meant or did, replaced each with a blank of the same standard length so that length gave no hint, and counted how many of the missing words readers restored. A text from which readers can rebuild the gaps is easier for them than one they cannot.
Teachers adapted the idea into the worksheet most people now call a cloze test. It works as a check of vocabulary, grammar and how well a reader follows the sense of a passage, since choosing the right word depends on the words around it. This tool keeps Taylor's standard-length blank, and adds the word bank and numbering that make a worksheet easy to mark.
How the Words Are Chosen
Taylor's tests were purely mechanical. To keep classroom worksheets fair, the every Nth word mode counts only eligible words and blanks every Nth of those. A word is eligible if it has at least four letters, is made only of letters, and does not look like a proper noun, meaning a capital first letter followed by a lowercase second letter. So short words such as the and of stay put, hyphenated words and words with digits are skipped, and so is any word that begins with a capital followed by a lowercase letter, including the first word of a sentence.
Example: every 5th word
Passage
Plants make food through photosynthesis. Chlorophyll in the leaves absorbs sunlight, and the plant uses that energy to turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose. Oxygen is released as a by-product. Without sunlight, most plants cannot produce enough glucose to grow.
Worksheet
Plants make food through photosynthesis. Chlorophyll in the ________ (1) absorbs sunlight, and the plant uses ________ (2) energy to turn water and carbon ________ (3) into glucose. Oxygen is released as a by-product. Without sunlight, ________ (4) plants cannot produce enough ________ (5) to grow.
Answer key
1 leaves, 2 that, 3 dioxide, 4 most, 5 glucose
The mode blanks whatever lands on the count, so a function word such as that or most sometimes goes. If you want only content words, use the word-list mode instead. Entering sunlight, glucose for the same passage blanks all four occurrences, and the word bank then lists each answer once per blank, so sunlight and glucose each appear twice.
Making a Better Cloze Worksheet
- Use a passage students have not memorised. Otherwise the exercise tests memory, not language.
- Pick N to suit the level. A blank every 5th word is hard; 10 or 12 is gentler. Use the word-list mode to target one topic, such as the key terms of a unit.
- Keep or hide the word bank. With the bank, the task is choosing and fitting words; without it, students must produce them, which is harder.
- Decide how you will mark. Exact-word marking is strict, because a good synonym is wrong, while accepting any fitting word is fairer but takes longer. The answer key shows the original word.
- Treat it as practice, not a measurement. Published scoring bands were worked out for unmodified every-Nth-word tests on set passages. Skipping short words and names changes the task, so do not compare these worksheets with those norms.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| Missing words filled in from a passage | This Cloze Test Generator |
| Hidden words found in a grid of letters | Word Search Generator |
| Words recalled from clues on a numbered grid | Crossword Puzzle Generator |
| Jumbled words put back in order | Word Scrambler |
| Items matched to their definitions | Matching Worksheet Generator |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a cloze test?
- A passage with words removed and replaced by blanks, which the reader fills in. The method was introduced by Wilson Taylor in 1953 to measure readability. Teachers use the same idea in worksheets that test vocabulary, grammar and understanding of a text.
- How does the every-Nth-word mode work?
- Choose N from 5 to 12. The tool counts the eligible words in order and blanks every Nth one. Eligible means four or more letters, letters only, and not a capitalised word that looks like a name. Short words, hyphenated words and capitalised words such as Chlorophyll, including the first word of every sentence, are never blanked.
- Can I choose exactly which words to blank?
- Yes. Switch to Blank these words and list the words separated by commas. Every whole-word match is blanked, ignoring case, and parts of longer words are left alone. A phrase with a space in it will not match, because the text is compared word by word.
- What is the word bank?
- The removed words in a shuffled order, so students can choose from them without the order giving anything away. A word removed twice appears twice. You can hide the bank for a harder worksheet. Note that Copy Worksheet always includes the bank, even if you hid it on screen.
- Why are all the blanks the same length?
- That follows Taylor's original design: a standard-length blank means the size of the gap does not hint at the word. It also keeps the layout simple for every passage.
- Is my text uploaded anywhere?
- No. The worksheet is built in your browser and nothing is sent or stored. Copy or print it before you leave the page.