Morse Code Translator

About this tool

This translator converts between plain text and International Morse Code in both directions. Encoding and decoding both run as a simple lookup-table conversion, entirely in your browser.

How to use the Morse Code Translator

1. Pick a direction — Text to Morse, or Morse to Text.
2. Type or paste your input — plain text, or Morse using dots and dashes.
3. Copy the result — it updates as you type.

Common use cases

• Learning or practicing Morse code for an amateur radio license or hobby
• Decoding a Morse message from a puzzle, game, or old radio log
• Writing a Morse-code message for a project, prop, or piece of jewelry

How Morse code is written as text

Since Morse code is really a pattern of short and long signals rather than written characters, this tool follows the standard plain-text convention: a period (.) represents a dot (short signal) and a hyphen (-) represents a dash (long signal). A single space separates the Morse pattern for one letter from the next, and a forward slash (/) separates one word from the next. For example, "SOS" becomes ... --- ..., and "HI THERE" becomes .... .. / - .... . .-. ..

Things to watch out for

International Morse Code only defines standard patterns for the 26 basic Latin letters, digits 0-9, and a handful of punctuation marks — accented letters, symbols outside that set, and emoji have no defined Morse pattern and will be flagged rather than silently dropped or guessed at. When decoding Morse back to text, make sure letters are separated by single spaces and words by a forward slash; running dots and dashes together without separators makes the pattern ambiguous to decode correctly.

A few Morse code facts

Morse code uses short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes). The distress signal SOS is three dots, three dashes, three dots, and was chosen because it is easy to send and recognize. Letters are separated by a short pause and words by a longer one. The most common English letters have the shortest codes: E is a single dot and T is a single dash.

Morse code chart: letters and numbers

These are the letter and digit codes this translator uses, which match the International Morse Code in ITU-R Recommendation M.1677-1:

Digits follow a simple pattern: 1 to 5 start with dots and add dashes (.---- is 1, ..... is 5), and 6 to 0 start with dashes and add dots (-.... is 6, ----- is 0).

Timing: how long dots, dashes and gaps last

Morse code is defined by timing, not by the symbols on the page. ITU-R M.1677-1 sets every length relative to one dot:

• A dash lasts 3 dots.
• The gap between the dots and dashes of one letter lasts 1 dot.
• The gap between letters lasts 3 dots.
• The gap between words lasts 7 dots.

Sending speed is usually quoted in words per minute, using the word "PARIS" as the standard word. Sent with the gap that follows it, PARIS takes exactly 50 dot lengths, so one dot lasts 60,000 ÷ (50 × wpm) milliseconds: 240 ms at 5 words per minute, and 60 ms at 20.

SOS and other tips

The distress signal SOS is sent as one continuous pattern, ...---..., without the usual gaps between letters. Typed into this translator as letters, it appears with spaces: ... --- .... When decoding, keep single spaces between letters and a slash between words. If you copy Morse from a source that uses Unicode dots (•) or long dashes (—), replace them with a period and hyphen first, or they will show as unconvertible.

Morse alphabet translator: common words and prosigns

Use the translator above to turn any text into Morse and any dots and dashes back into text. The alphabet chart on this page lists every letter and number. A few words come up again and again, so here they are in the same plain-text convention the tool uses (a period for a dot, a hyphen for a dash, a space between letters and a slash between words):

Prosigns: operating signals

Prosigns are sent as one unbroken run with no gap between the letters, so AR is .-.-. rather than .- .-. . The tool translates letters and numbers; prosigns are shown here for reference.

How to learn the Morse alphabet

• Learn by sound, not by looking. Think of A as “di-dah”, not dot-dash.
• Start with E, T, I, M, A and N, the shortest patterns, then add the rest in small groups.
• Use a faster character speed with longer gaps between letters, so each letter sounds like one shape (the Farnsworth method).

Related tools: convert text to numbers with the Binary & Hex Converter, scramble letters with the Word Scrambler, or change letter case with the Case Converter.