How to read the chart
Each character is a pattern of short signals, dots, and long signals, dashes. A dash lasts as long as three dots. Inside a character the signals are one dot apart, letters are three dots apart and words seven.
Written down, letters are separated by a space and words by a slash, so “hi there” is .... .. / - .... . .-. .. The most common letters have the shortest codes: E is a single dot and T a single dash.
Learning it by sound
Many people learn each letter as a rhythm, “dit” for a dot and “dah” for a dash, so A is di-dah, rather than as a picture to look up. Press Play sound on the Morse code translator to hear any message.
For classrooms and escape rooms
Put the chart on the wall next to a coded message and let players decode it, or make the coded clue itself, with its key, in the secret code maker.
Sources & method
Every letter, figure and punctuation code on the chart follows Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1, International Morse code (2009), checked character by character, and so do the timing rules in its footer.
Checked against
- Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1: International Morse codeevery code on the chart and the timing of signals, letters and words