Text → Morse code
| Text | Morse Code |
|---|---|
| SOS | ... --- ... |
| Hello | .... . .-.. .-.. --- |
| I love you | .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..- |
| Help | .... . .-.. .--. |
| What hath God wrought | .-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... - |
Morse code alphabet
Letters and figures from the ITU standard. Tap Play sound above to hear any message.
Punctuation
Also in the ITU standard: é is ..-... Common extras that aren’t in it: ! -.-.--, & .-..., ; -.-.-., _ ..--.-, $ ...-..-.
How Morse code works
Morse code spells each character with short and long signals, dots and dashes. A dash lasts as long as three dots. The gap inside a character lasts one dot, the gap between letters three dots and the gap between words seven. When written down, letters are separated by spaces and words by a slash ( / ).
The most common letters got the shortest codes: E is a single dot and T a single dash.
Reading Morse code
Tap the swap button so it reads Morse code → Text, then paste the dots and dashes. Separate letters with a space, and words with a slash, a bar ( | ) or three spaces. Dots written as · or • and dashes written as – or _ work too. A code that isn’t in the table shows as �.
A short history
Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed the code for the electric telegraph, and the famous first message on the line from Washington to Baltimore, “What hath God wrought”, was sent in 1844. The international version used today grew out of later European changes, and the ITU still maintains it as Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1.
Ships used Morse code for distress calls until 1999, when a satellite-based system took over. Radio amateurs still use it every day.
SOS
SOS is sent as one unbroken signal, ...---..., rather than as three separate letters. It was chosen because it is easy to send and to recognize; it doesn’t stand for “save our souls”.
Morse code terms
- Dit and dah
- How operators say a dot and a dash out loud.
- WPM
- Words per minute. The sound on this page plays at about 18 WPM.
- CW
- Continuous wave: radio amateurs’ name for sending Morse code by radio.
- Prosign
- A signal sent as one character, such as SOS or “end of work” (...-.-).
Sources & method
Every letter, figure and punctuation code follows Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1, International Morse code (2009), checked character by character, and so do the sound’s timings: a dash is three dots, and gaps of one, three and seven dots separate signals, letters and words.
The extras ! & ; _ and $ are widely used but aren’t in the ITU standard, so other tools may write them differently.
Checked against
- Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1: International Morse codeevery letter, figure and punctuation code, and the timing of signals, letters and words