Morse Code Translator: Text to Morse and Morse to Text

Text

Morse code

Speed18 WPM Tone600 Hz Letter spacing×1

Audio, flash, and vibration playback WAV download, no signup Full ITU character set Works offline

Signal, not noise

A Morse translator you can hear, see, and feel

Morse code is a sound before it is a spelling, so this translator does more than swap characters: it plays your message as proper International Morse with adjustable speed and tone, flashes it on screen like a signal lamp, taps it out through your phone's vibration motor, and exports it as a WAV file you can keep. Translation runs both directions live as you type, every character chart on this page plays its code when you click it, and the whole thing works in your browser with nothing sent to any server.

Quick answer

What is Morse code?

Morse code is a method of encoding text as sequences of short and long signals, called dits and dahs, that can be sent as sound, light, or electrical pulses. Each letter, digit, and punctuation mark has its own pattern: S is three dits, O is three dahs, which is why SOS is di-di-dit dah-dah-dah di-di-dit. The version used worldwide today is International Morse, standardized by the ITU in Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1.

The full character set is charted below, and every row plays its code aloud when clicked.

Step-by-step guide

How to translate text to Morse code

Type or paste your text

Enter text in the left panel. The Morse translation appears instantly on the right, with letters separated by spaces and words separated by a slash.

Or go the other way

Paste Morse into the right panel using dots and dashes, a space between letters and a slash between words, and the text appears on the left. Anything the decoder cannot match is flagged rather than guessed.

Set your speed and tone

Choose a speed in words per minute and a tone frequency. Beginners usually start around 15 to 18 WPM character speed with extra letter spacing, which keeps each letter crisp while giving you time to think.

Play it, flash it, or feel it

Play the message as audio, flash it on screen like a signal lamp, or send it to your phone's vibration motor. Hearing the rhythm is how Morse is actually learned; reading dots is just the map.

Download or share

Export the audio as a WAV file for practice or projects, or copy a share link that reproduces the exact message and settings for anyone you send it to.

Reference chart

Morse code alphabet: A to Z

The complete International Morse alphabet. Click any row to hear it at your chosen speed. The sound column writes each code the way operators say it: dits and dahs, with a trailing dit pronounced "dit".

International Morse alphabet per ITU-R M.1677-1. Click a row to play it.
Letter	Code	Sound
A	.-	di-dah	▶ play
B	-...	dah-di-di-dit	▶ play
C	-.-.	dah-di-dah-dit	▶ play
D	-..	dah-di-dit	▶ play
E	.	dit	▶ play
F	..-.	di-di-dah-dit	▶ play
G	--.	dah-dah-dit	▶ play
H	....	di-di-di-dit	▶ play
I	..	di-dit	▶ play
J	.---	di-dah-dah-dah	▶ play
K	-.-	dah-di-dah	▶ play
L	.-..	di-dah-di-dit	▶ play
M	--	dah-dah	▶ play
N	-.	dah-dit	▶ play
O	---	dah-dah-dah	▶ play
P	.--.	di-dah-dah-dit	▶ play
Q	--.-	dah-dah-di-dah	▶ play
R	.-.	di-dah-dit	▶ play
S	...	di-di-dit	▶ play
T	-	dah	▶ play
U	..-	di-di-dah	▶ play
V	...-	di-di-di-dah	▶ play
W	.--	di-dah-dah	▶ play
X	-..-	dah-di-di-dah	▶ play
Y	-.--	dah-di-dah-dah	▶ play
Z	--..	dah-dah-di-dit	▶ play

Reference chart

Morse code numbers: 0 to 9

Every digit is exactly five elements long, and the pattern is mechanical: 1 through 5 start with that many dits, 6 through 9 start with dahs, and 0 is five dahs. Once you see the system, the numbers chart memorizes itself.

International Morse digits per ITU-R M.1677-1. Click a row to play it.
Digit	Code	Sound
1	.----	di-dah-dah-dah-dah	▶ play
2	..---	di-di-dah-dah-dah	▶ play
3	...--	di-di-di-dah-dah	▶ play
4	....-	di-di-di-di-dah	▶ play
5	.....	di-di-di-di-dit	▶ play
6	-....	dah-di-di-di-dit	▶ play
7	--...	dah-dah-di-di-dit	▶ play
8	---..	dah-dah-dah-di-dit	▶ play
9	----.	dah-dah-dah-dah-dit	▶ play
0	-----	dah-dah-dah-dah-dah	▶ play

Reference chart

Morse code for punctuation and symbols: . , ? ! @ and more

International Morse defines codes for common punctuation, and amateur practice has added a few more. The standard column tells you which is which, because not every symbol on your keyboard has a Morse equivalent, and an honest translator says so instead of inventing one.

Punctuation and symbols. ITU = defined in ITU-R M.1677-1; Common = widespread amateur usage outside the standard. Click a row to play it.
Symbol	Name	Code	Standard
.	Period	.-.-.-	ITU	▶ play
,	Comma	--..--	ITU	▶ play
?	Question mark	..--..	ITU	▶ play
'	Apostrophe	.----.	ITU	▶ play
!	Exclamation mark	-.-.--	Common	▶ play
/	Slash	-..-.	ITU	▶ play
(	Open bracket	-.--.	ITU	▶ play
)	Close bracket	-.--.-	ITU	▶ play
&	Ampersand	.-...	Common	▶ play
:	Colon	---...	ITU	▶ play
;	Semicolon	-.-.-.	Common	▶ play
=	Equals sign	-...-	ITU	▶ play
+	Plus sign	.-.-.	ITU	▶ play
-	Hyphen	-....-	ITU	▶ play
_	Underscore	..--.-	Common	▶ play
"	Quotation mark	.-..-.	ITU	▶ play
$	Dollar sign	...-..-	Common	▶ play
@	At sign	.--.-.	ITU	▶ play
×	Multiplication sign	-..-	ITU (same pattern as X)	▶ play

No code exists

Symbols Morse cannot send: ~ # % ^ * < > | \

Characters like the tilde, number sign, percent sign, and angle brackets have no Morse representation, in the ITU standard or in common practice. Operators spell them out instead: "HASHTAG" letter by letter, or "0/0" for percent as the ITU suggests. This translator flags unsupported characters in your input rather than guessing, so what you send is always real Morse.

Prosigns

Signals that are not letters

Prosigns are procedural signals sent as one run-together pattern: SOS is the famous one, a single nine-element signal rather than three letters. Others mark the end of a message (AR), the end of a contact (SK), a new paragraph (BT), or an error (eight dits). The table below plays each one.

Procedural signals (prosigns), sent without gaps between the letters they are written as. Click a row to play it.
Prosign	Code	Meaning
SOS	...---...	International distress signal, sent as one continuous pattern	▶ play
AR	.-.-.	End of message (same pattern as +)	▶ play
SK	...-.-	End of contact, closing down	▶ play
BT	-...-	Break, new paragraph (same pattern as =)	▶ play
KN	-.--.	Go ahead, named station only (same pattern as open bracket)	▶ play
CT	-.-.-	Start of transmission	▶ play
AS	.-...	Wait, stand by (same pattern as ampersand)	▶ play
HH	........	Error: erase the last word and resend	▶ play

The rhythm

Morse timing: the 1-3-7 rule

All of Morse is built from one unit of time. A dit lasts 1 unit and a dah lasts 3. Inside a letter, elements are separated by 1 unit of silence; letters are separated by 3 units; words by 7. The diagram shows S, O, S spelled as three letters on that ruler: 27 units from first dit to last. Sent as the run-together distress prosign instead, the same nine elements take just 23 units, because the two 3-unit letter gaps collapse to 1-unit element gaps. The silences are real information.

Speed is measured against the 50-unit reference word PARIS, so unit length = 1.2 s ÷ WPM. The contexts column describes common associations, not rules.
Speed	Unit length	Typical context
5 WPM	240 ms	Learning pace; the level of ISED's optional Canadian Morse qualification
12 WPM	100 ms	Comfortable beginner copying after a few months of practice
18 WPM	67 ms	Everyday conversational CW on the amateur bands
25 WPM	48 ms	Fluent operators; ragchews and nets move around here
35+ WPM	≤34 ms	Contesting and high-speed telegraphy, copied by rhythm alone

Designed, not arbitrary

Why E is one dit: Morse was built for efficiency

The code assigns the shortest patterns to the most frequent English letters: E, the most common letter, is a single dit, while rare letters get long patterns. The chart plots transmission time in units for the twelve most frequent English letters, in frequency order, and the upward drift is the design showing through.

Duration in units (elements plus internal gaps)

Durations follow ITU timing: dit 1, dah 3, plus 1 unit between elements. Letter order is the conventional ETAOIN SHRDLU frequency ranking for English text.

Feature comparison

What most Morse translators are missing

Typical translator refers to the common feature set across widely used free online Morse translators as of 2026. Individual tools vary; verify against the specific tool you compare.
Capability	Typical translator	This translator
Live translation in both directions	Often one way, or button-press only	Both directions, as you type
Audio with speed and tone control	Fixed beep, if any	5 to 40 WPM, 400 to 1000 Hz, adjustable letter spacing
WAV audio download	Rare	Rendered in your browser, no server
Flash and vibration playback	Almost never	Signal-lamp flash mode plus phone vibration
Clickable, audible reference charts	Static images	Every row of every chart plays its code
Honest symbol coverage	Silently drops or invents codes	ITU vs common usage labelled; unsupported characters flagged
Prosigns including SOS as one signal	Sometimes	Full prosign table with playback
Shareable links	Rare	Message and settings encode into a copyable URL
Works offline	Sometimes	Single self-contained page
No ads or signup	Heavily ad-loaded	None

For Canada

Morse code and Canada: from Signal Hill to today's hams

Canada sits at the very beginning of wireless Morse: on December 12, 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal, the letter S, three faint dits sent from Cornwall, England, at Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland. A century later, Morse proficiency is no longer mandatory for Canadian amateur radio certification, but ISED still offers an optional Morse qualification at 5 words per minute, and CW remains one of the most active modes on Canadian amateur bands.

1901

The letter S crosses the Atlantic

Marconi's receiver at Signal Hill, strung to a kite-borne antenna in a December gale, caught three dits repeated from Poldhu, Cornwall, roughly 3,500 kilometres away. The choice of S was practical: the simplest unmistakable pattern to send continuously. The site is now Signal Hill National Historic Site, and the moment is the founding event of transatlantic radio.

Licensing

Morse and the Canadian amateur certificate

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) administers amateur radio certification. Morse is not required for the Basic or Advanced qualifications, and the optional Morse qualification is examined at 5 WPM. In practice, many Canadian operators learn CW anyway, because it remains the most power-efficient voice on the bands.

Canadian amateur radio call sign prefixes by province and territory. Knowing the prefix tells you where a CW signal calls home.
Prefix	Region	Prefix	Region
VE1	Nova Scotia	VE6	Alberta
VE2	Quebec	VE7	British Columbia
VE3	Ontario	VE8	Northwest Territories
VE4	Manitoba	VE9	New Brunswick
VE5	Saskatchewan	VO1 / VO2	Newfoundland / Labrador
VY1	Yukon	VY2 / VY0	Prince Edward Island / Nunavut

The famous nine elements

SOS: the signal that is not three letters

SOS was adopted as the international distress signal at the 1906 Berlin radiotelegraph convention, chosen not as an abbreviation but as a pattern: nine elements, di-di-dit dah-dah-dah di-di-dit, sent as one continuous prosign with no letter gaps, unmistakable through static and impossible to confuse with ordinary traffic. The backronyms came later; the rhythm came first. Click the prosign table above to hear it as it is actually sent.

What to avoid

Six Morse mistakes beginners make

Learning by sight, not sound

Memorizing dot-dash pictures builds a lookup table in your head that collapses past 10 WPM, a wall operators call the plateau.

Learn each letter as a rhythm from day one. Use the playback here and the clickable charts; read the dots only as a map.

Counting dits and dahs

Counting elements works at 5 WPM and fails completely at speed, because there is no time to count.

Listen for the whole shape of the letter, the way you hear a word rather than its syllables.

Sloppy spacing

Run letters together and EE becomes I; stretch a gap and I becomes EE. Spacing is not decoration, it is half the information.

Keep the 1-3-7 rule honest. The letter-spacing slider here lets you practise with exaggerated gaps, then tighten them.

Treating SOS as S, O, S

Sending SOS with normal letter gaps is technically three letters, not the distress prosign, which runs continuously.

Prosigns are single signals. The prosign table sends them correctly, with no internal letter gaps.

Inventing codes for symbols

There is no Morse for # or ~, and tools that invent codes produce messages no operator can read.

Spell unsupported symbols out, or rephrase. This translator flags them instead of guessing.

Starting too slow

Learning characters at 5 WPM teaches 5 WPM rhythms that must be unlearned later.

Use brisk character speed with extra spacing between letters, the approach behind Farnsworth-style training, then close the gaps.

Glossary

Morse and telegraphy terms, defined

Dit and dah: The two elements of Morse: a short signal of 1 unit and a long signal of 3 units. Written as a dot and a dash, spoken as "di" and "dah".
CW: Continuous wave, the radio mode that carries Morse by keying a steady carrier on and off. On the amateur bands, "CW" effectively means Morse code operation.
WPM: Words per minute, measured against the 50-unit reference word PARIS. One timing unit equals 1.2 seconds divided by the WPM figure.
Farnsworth spacing: A training method that sends individual characters at full speed but stretches the gaps between letters and words, so learners absorb real rhythms from the start.
Prosign: A procedural signal sent as one run-together pattern, such as SOS (distress), AR (end of message), or SK (end of contact). Written with a bar over the letters in formal notation.
International Morse: The worldwide standard character set and timing, specified in ITU-R Recommendation M.1677-1. It replaced the older American (railroad) Morse for radio use.
Call sign: A station's unique licensed identifier. Canadian amateur call signs begin with VA, VE, VO, or VY, with the digit indicating province or territory.
QSO: A two-way contact between stations, from the Q-code system of three-letter abbreviations that Morse operators use to compress common phrases.

FAQ

Morse code questions, answered

How do I translate text to Morse code?

Type your text into the translator at the top of this page and the Morse appears instantly, letters separated by spaces and words by a slash. You can then play it as audio at your chosen speed, flash it on screen, vibrate it on a phone, or download it as a WAV file. It also decodes Morse back to text the same way.

What is SOS in Morse code?

Di-di-dit dah-dah-dah di-di-dit: three dits, three dahs, three dits, written ...---... and sent as one continuous nine-element prosign with no gaps between the letters. It was adopted as the international distress signal at the 1906 Berlin convention for its unmistakable pattern, not as an abbreviation; meanings like "save our souls" were attached afterwards.

How do you write numbers in Morse code?

Every digit is five elements. 1 is .---- and each digit up to 5 adds a dit at the front: 5 is ...... minus one, that is ....., all dits. From 6 the pattern mirrors with dahs: 6 is -...., 9 is ----., and 0 is five dahs, -----. The numbers chart above plays each one when clicked.

Is there Morse code for symbols like @ or #?

Some symbols, yes: the ITU standard defines @ (.--.-.), added in 2004 for email addresses, along with period, comma, question mark, slash, brackets, and others charted above. But # ~ % ^ * and angle brackets have no Morse code at all, standard or otherwise. Operators spell them out, and this translator flags them rather than inventing patterns.

How long does it take to learn Morse code?

Most learners who practise 15 to 30 minutes daily can copy all letters and digits at slow speed within several weeks, and reach comfortable conversational copying over a period of months. The single biggest factor is method: learning by sound at brisk character speed with stretched spacing avoids the plateau that visual memorization creates.

What does WPM mean in Morse code?

Words per minute, measured against the standard 50-unit word PARIS. The formula is simple: one timing unit lasts 1.2 seconds divided by the WPM. At 18 WPM a dit is about 67 milliseconds; at 5 WPM it is 240. The speed slider on this page covers 5 to 40 WPM.

Is Morse code still used today?

Yes, most visibly in amateur radio, where CW remains one of the most popular modes because it gets through with less power and simpler equipment than voice. It also persists in aviation navigation beacon identifiers and as an assistive communication method for people who cannot speak or type conventionally.

Do I need Morse code for a Canadian ham radio licence?

No. Morse proficiency is not required for the Basic or Advanced amateur qualifications administered by ISED. An optional Morse qualification, examined at 5 words per minute, still exists, and many Canadian operators learn CW by choice because of its reach and tradition.

What was the first transatlantic Morse signal?

The letter S, three dits, received by Guglielmo Marconi at Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland on December 12, 1901, transmitted from Poldhu in Cornwall, England. S was chosen because a repeating run of three dits was the simplest pattern to recognize through the noise. The site is now a National Historic Site of Canada.

What is the difference between a dot-dash chart and real Morse?

The chart is a map; the code is a rhythm. Operators copy Morse by the sound shape of whole letters, which is why this page plays everything aloud and why the timing section matters as much as the alphabet: a dah is exactly three dits long, and the silences carry half the meaning.

Can my phone vibrate Morse code?

On most Android browsers, yes: the Vibrate button here converts your message into a vibration pattern using the same 1-3-7 timing as the audio. iOS Safari does not currently expose the vibration API to web pages, so on iPhones use the audio or flash modes instead.

Is this Morse translator free and private?

Yes. There is no account and no signup, the text you type never leaves your browser, audio and WAV files are generated on your device, and the page keeps working offline after it loads. Share links encode the message in the URL itself.

What is the hardest part of reading Morse by ear?

Spacing. The gap inside a letter is 1 unit, between letters 3, between words 7, and compressing or stretching those silences changes the message: run two E's together and you have sent an I. Training with exaggerated letter spacing, then tightening it, builds the habit correctly.