Morse Code Translator
Type in either box. Text becomes Morse, Morse becomes text, and the play button turns it into the sound a real operator would hear.
At this speed the screen flashes more than three times per second. If you are sensitive to flashing light, set the speed to 7 WPM or lower.
Advanced settings
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How to use the translator
The two boxes stay in sync and the translator works in both directions. Type on the left to convert text into Morse code as you go; paste dots and dashes on the right to decode Morse code back into plain text. Nothing is submitted anywhere, so you can close the tab at any point and nothing is left behind.
- Speed is measured in words per minute. The reference word is PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long, so 20 WPM means one unit lasts 60 milliseconds. Beginners usually start around 10 WPM, licensed amateurs work comfortably between 18 and 25.
- Tone sets the pitch of the beep. Most operators settle between 550 and 750 Hz because that range cuts through noise without becoming tiring.
- Flash light blinks the screen white in time with the signal. That is how Morse is sent between ships, and it works surprisingly well across a dark room.
- Download audio writes a WAV file of your message, which you can drop into a video, a message or a ringtone.
When you write Morse by hand, separate letters with a single space and words with a slash: .... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -... Three or more spaces are read as a word break too, so pasting from other sites usually works without editing.
The Morse code alphabet at a glance
Press the small play button next to any character to hear it on its own. This is the international standard defined in ITU-R M.1677-1, the same one used in aviation, at sea and in amateur radio.
Letters
- A .-
- B -...
- C -.-.
- D -..
- E .
- F ..-.
- G --.
- H ....
- I ..
- J .---
- K -.-
- L .-..
- M --
- N -.
- O ---
- P .--.
- Q --.-
- R .-.
- S ...
- T -
- U ..-
- V ...-
- W .--
- X -..-
- Y -.--
- Z --..
Numbers
- 0 -----
- 1 .----
- 2 ..---
- 3 ...--
- 4 ....-
- 5 .....
- 6 -....
- 7 --...
- 8 ---..
- 9 ----.
Why the rhythm matters more than the symbols
Morse code looks like a list of dots and dashes, but it is heard as rhythm. Five durations do all the work, and they are all multiples of one basic unit:
- a dot is one unit
- a dash is three units
- the gap inside a letter is one unit
- the gap between letters is three units
- the gap between words is seven units
This is why people who learn Morse from a printed table often stall. They memorise dot dot dot for S, then have to translate every letter twice when they hear it. Operators who learn by ear learn the sound of a whole letter at once, and that is what the play button here is for: read a letter, hear it, and let the two link up.
A useful trick: keep the character speed high and stretch the gaps instead. That is called Farnsworth timing. You hear each letter at full speed from the very first day, but you get time to think between them. It removes the plateau that almost everyone hits around 10 WPM.
What this translator does that a lookup table cannot
Converting letters is the easy part. The parts that actually take work are the ones that make Morse usable:
- Accented letters. German umlauts, Spanish ñ and French accented vowels have their own codes and are included, so a message in your own language does not lose characters silently.
- Punctuation. All 18 punctuation marks of international Morse code, from the full stop to the at sign the ITU added in 2004. Most translators drop everything but the letters, and a punctuation mark that vanishes without warning is worse than one that is refused.
- Real timing in the audio. The tone fades in and out over five milliseconds, which removes the click you get from tools that switch a sine wave on and off abruptly.
- A downloadable WAV file rather than a stream you can only listen to once.
- Prosigns. SOS is a single run-together signal, not three separate letters, and it is decoded as such.
Frequently asked questions
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Is this Morse code translator free?
Yes, completely, and there is no account and no limit on how much text you convert. The page runs entirely in your browser, so there is no server cost tied to your usage.
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Does my text get sent anywhere?
No. The encoding, the decoding, the sound and the WAV file are all produced by JavaScript on your own device. Nothing you type is transmitted or stored.
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What does SOS look like in Morse code?
SOS is
...---..., sent as one continuous signal with no letter gaps. It was chosen in 1906 because that rhythm is unmistakable, not because the letters stand for anything. -
What is the difference between a dot and a dash?
Only length. A dash lasts exactly three times as long as a dot, and both are the same tone at the same pitch. That is the whole distinction, which is why Morse code carries through noise that would make speech unintelligible: a listener has to tell short from long, not one sound from another.
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Can it decode Morse code back into English?
Yes, that is the right-hand box. Paste dots and dashes and the plain text appears immediately. If what you have is a sound rather than written symbols, the audio decoder listens to a recording or the microphone instead.
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Why does my Morse look different from another site?
Almost always spacing. Some tools separate letters with a slash and words with a double slash, others use pipes. This translator reads single spaces as letter gaps, and either a slash or three spaces as a word gap, so most formats paste in cleanly.
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How fast should I set the speed to learn?
Set the character speed higher than feels comfortable, around 18 to 20 WPM, and slow yourself down by leaving longer pauses between characters. Learning letters at their real speed from the start saves you from relearning them later.