Complete the Words gives you a sentence or short passage with a blank, and a set of word choices that often look deceptively similar. The trap isn't vocabulary size — it's picking a word that's close in meaning but wrong for that exact slot.
Before thinking about meaning at all, decide what part of speech the blank needs: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. This alone eliminates answer choices instantly — a word that means roughly the right thing but is the wrong part of speech is always wrong.
English pairs certain words together by habit, not just logic — "make a decision," not "do a decision"; "heavy rain," not "strong rain." Native-level fluency partly comes from knowing these fixed pairings. When two choices seem equally correct in meaning, the one that "sounds right" together with the surrounding words is usually the answer.
Some questions test the difference between words that mean almost the same thing but carry a different shade of meaning — "big" vs. "significant," "look" vs. "glance." Reread the full sentence with each option substituted in, and ask which one keeps the sentence's exact intended meaning, not just a similar one.
Practice real Complete the Words items with instant feedback on every choice.
Try Complete the Words free on mrreadyprep →