Morse Code Translator
Letters to Dots and Dashes, and Back Again, With Sound

Jobs This Morse Code Translator Handles for You

This Morse code translator runs both ways at the same time. Type words in the left box and the dots and dashes appear on the right. Paste Morse code on the right, and the text appears on the left.

It also plays the code out loud. You pick the speed and the tone, and a lamp flashes in time with every beep, so you can learn by ear and by eye. When you want to keep it, one click saves the signal as a WAV file.

Everything happens in your browser, sound included. Nothing you type or play is sent to a server, so you can paste a private note without thinking about it twice. Clear the boxes when you are done, or paste the text again later to check a message you already sent.

How Morse Code Works

Morse builds each letter from two signals, a short dot and a long dash. Each dash is held for three dot lengths. For instance, E is one dot, T is one dash and S is three dots.

The gaps count every bit as much as the beeps. Inside a letter, the gap equals one dot. Between letters, it lasts three dots, and between words it lasts seven. So a good sender keeps a steady rhythm, and a good listener hears whole letters as little tunes rather than counting dots.

Letters to Dots and Dashes, and Back Again

To turn text to Morse, just type. Letters are split by a space and words by a slash, which is the most common way to write Morse code on paper and online. You can change the word gap to a bar, three spaces or a new line to match another tool.

To read Morse code, paste it into the right box. The translator accepts dots and dashes written in almost any style, such as periods and hyphens, underscores, or the • and − symbols. It also lists every code it failed to read rather than quietly skipping them.

Hear It, See It, Save It

Press Play sound and the code plays as a clean tone. Meanwhile, the lamp beside the button lights up for every dot and dash, which helps people who learn better by sight, and it works with the sound turned down.

Speed is set in words per minute, from a slow 5 up to a quick 40. The tone can go from a low 300 Hz to a bright 1000 Hz. Finally, Download WAV saves the same signal as a sound file you can share, put in a video or play on any device.

Farnsworth Spacing for Learners

Farnsworth spacing sends each letter at full speed but stretches the gaps between letters and words. As a result, you learn the true sound of every letter from the start, while still having time to think. The translator uses the timing the ARRL recommends for learning Morse code, so its output matches most training courses.

Arabic Morse and Accented Letters

Besides the international alphabet, the translator knows Arabic Morse. Type Arabic text and each letter gets its own code, with forms such as أ and ة sent as their base letters. Many Arabic codes match Latin ones, so the page switches the alphabet to Arabic when it reads Arabic code back.

It also sends the accented letters that operators use for other languages, such as É, Ñ, Ä, Ö and Ü. Letters with no code of their own, such as Ê, are sent as the plain letter. Anything else, like an emoji, is listed in the checks table rather than lost without a word.

Prosigns and SOS

Certain signals go out as a single run with no letter gaps. These are called prosigns. The most famous is SOS, which is sent as three dots, three dashes and three dots in one unbroken pattern. Others mark the end of a message or a pause.

To send a prosign, wrap it in angle brackets, such as <SOS>, <AR> or <SK>. When you read code, the translator recognises the SOS pattern too. In practice, AR ends a message, SK ends a contact, and BT separates parts of a message.

Morse Code From 1844 to Today

Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail created the first version of the code for the electric telegraph in the late 1830s. In 1844, the famous message What hath God wrought travelled by wire from Washington to Baltimore. Soon, telegraph lines crossed whole countries.

The code most people use today is International Morse code, agreed in Europe in 1865 and later adopted by radio. Ships relied on it until 1999, when satellite systems took over distress calls. Today, the standard is kept by the ITU in Recommendation M.1677, and this translator follows it.

Learning Morse Code Ten Minutes at a Time

Learn each letter as a rhythm you hear. If you memorise a chart of dots and dashes, you end up counting, and counting is slow. Instead, play each letter at about 20 WPM and learn its rhythm, so that the sound of dah-di-dah-dit simply means C.

Start with two letters, then add a new one each time you get 90 percent right. This is known as the Koch method, and it works well with Farnsworth spacing. Also, practise a little every day. A short daily session of ten minutes beats one long weekly one.

For a full overview of the code, the Wikipedia article on Morse code covers its history, timing and many variants.

Places Morse Code Still Turns Up Today

Radio hams, pilots and sailors still use Morse. Amateur radio operators use it every day, because a simple tone gets through noise that would drown a voice. Aircraft radio beacons still identify themselves with two or three letters in Morse, and pilots check them by ear.

It also helps people who cannot type or speak easily. With one or two switches, a person can enter any letter in Morse code, and some phone keyboards offer a Morse input mode for exactly this reason.

For other ways to write text as symbols, try our binary translator. And if you need numbers spelled out in full, the number to words converter writes them in six languages.