Morse Code Translator

How to use this tool

Type a message and the Morse code appears as you type; paste dots and dashes and it reads them back as text. Press Play sound to hear it, and each letter lights up as it is sent. Set the speed in words per minute, lower the spacing speed if you are learning by ear, and change the tone to suit your speakers.

When typing Morse yourself, the input people get wrong most often is the spacing: leave one space between letters and a slash between words. Swap sends the translation back into the input, and Download sound saves the message as an audio file.

How Morse code works

Morse code turns each character into a pattern of short and long signals, dots and dashes. The patterns were chosen so common letters are short: E, the most frequent letter in English, is a single dot and T a single dash, while rare letters such as Q get four signals.

Timing carries as much meaning as the signals. Everything is measured in units: a dot is one unit and a dash three, the gap inside a letter is one unit, between letters three and between words seven. Speed is set by the word PARIS, exactly 50 units, so at 20 words per minute one unit lasts 1.2 divided by 20, or 60 milliseconds.

Morse code for punctuation

A worked example you can check on paper

SOS is S, O, S: … — …. Each S is three dots with two one unit gaps, 5 units. O is three dashes with two gaps, 3 x 3 + 2 = 11 units. Add two three unit gaps between the letters and the total is 5 + 3 + 11 + 3 + 5 = 27 units.

At 20 words per minute a unit is 1.2 / 20 = 0.06 seconds, so SOS takes 27 x 0.06 = 1.62 seconds to send, the 1.6 s the tool shows. Sent as a distress call it runs as one continuous sequence, …—…, without the letter gaps.

Mistakes that catch people out

Leaving out the spaces. .-.. could be L, or A followed by I, or E, T, I. Without the gaps between letters, Morse code is ambiguous.

Using long dashes. Word processors turn a hyphen into a long dash. The translator accepts most dash and dot characters, but some tools do not, so plain hyphens and full stops are safest.

Counting dots at speed. Beyond about 10 words per minute nobody counts; learn each letter as a sound with the Farnsworth spacing and speed up the gaps later.

Expecting every symbol. Morse has no lowercase, and many symbols, such as # and %, have no standard code, so they are left out of the translation.

Popular translations

Each opens the translator with that message ready to play, and the text can be changed once it is open.

Words and phrases

Letters

Numbers

Morse code to text

How this was checked

Every letter, digit and symbol was checked against the table in ITU Recommendation M.1677, and each code was decoded back to the character it came from. Timing was tested with the standard word PARIS, which came out at exactly 50 units, and the Farnsworth spacing against the ARRL formula. Dot and dash characters copied from other sites, such as middle dots and long dashes, are read correctly.

Every address in the lists above was then opened and checked for a distinct title, the right code, a signal chart that renders, and clean CSV, image and print output containing only that message, at desktop, tablet and phone widths.

Common questions

What is SOS in Morse code?

SOS is … — …, three dots, three dashes and three dots. In a real emergency it is sent as one unbroken signal without the usual gaps between letters, which is why it was chosen: it is easy to send and hard to mistake, not because the letters stand for anything.

How do you say I love you in Morse code?

.. / .-.. — …- . / -.– — ..-, with a space between letters and a slash between words. Radio operators also use the shorthand 88, love and kisses, sent as —.. —..

How do I translate Morse code into English?

Paste or type the code with one space between letters and a slash, or three spaces, between words. The translator detects that it is Morse and turns it into text; any group it cannot read shows as #, usually a sign that two letters ran together.

How fast is Morse code sent?

Speed is measured in words per minute using the word PARIS, which is 50 units long. At 20 words per minute a dot lasts 60 milliseconds; many experienced operators work at 20 to 30 words per minute, and learners often start at 5 to 15.

Is Morse code still used?

Yes. Amateur radio operators use it every day because a weak Morse signal gets through when voice will not, and radio navigation beacons for aircraft still identify themselves in Morse. Ships stopped relying on it for distress calls in 1999, when satellite based systems took over.

Why do people learn Morse code by sound?

Counting dots and dashes is far too slow at real speeds. Operators learn each letter as a rhythm, dit dah for A and dah dit dit dit for B, which is why the table on this page shows the sound as well as the code.

Related Calculators and Reference

• Binary, Hex and Decimal Converter: another way of writing information as two symbols.
• Roman Numeral Converter: numbers in an older notation.
• Number to Words Converter: spell out any number in English.
• Military Time Converter: the 24 hour clock used on the radio.
• ITU Recommendation M.1677: International Morse code: the official character table.