A gap-fill is a practice exercise in which learners have to replace words missing from a text. These words are chosen and removed in order to practise a specific language point. Gap-fill exercises contrast with cloze texts, where words are removed at regular intervals, e.g. every five words.

Example
The first sentence above prepared to practise article use could read '______ gap-fill is ______ practice exercise where ______learners have to replace ______ words which have been removed from ______ text.'

In the classroom
Gap-fills are often used to practise specific language points, for example items of grammar and vocabulary, and features of written texts such as conjunctions. They are common in testing.