How to use the translator
- Type or paste text in the Text box. The Morse code appears as you type.
- Press Play to hear it. The signal light blinks and each dot or dash is highlighted as it sounds.
- Use Copy to grab the code, or the download button to save it as a WAV file.
- To decode, press the arrows between the two labels, or paste dots and dashes and follow the prompt that appears.
Looking for a common phrase? SOS in Morse code and I love you in Morse code each have their own page with a player, variations and ways to send them. Planning a tattoo or a piece of jewelry? The Morse code tattoo generator draws your text as a design you can download, and the Morse code bracelet maker turns it into a bead pattern.
The decoder is forgiving with input. It reads dots written as ., · or • and dashes written as -, _ or −, so code copied from other sites or documents usually works without cleanup. Codes it cannot match show up as #, and the box below the translator lists them.
How Morse code timing works
Morse code is built from one unit of time:
- a dot lasts 1 unit, a dash 3 units
- the gap between dots and dashes inside a letter is 1 unit
- the gap between letters is 3 units, and between words 7 units
Speed is measured in words per minute using the word PARIS, which takes exactly 50 units to send. At 20 WPM one unit is 60 milliseconds. The audio and the WAV download follow these ratios exactly, so what you hear is what a radio operator would send.
A short history
Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed the code for the electric telegraph in the late 1830s, and in 1844 the line between Washington and Baltimore carried the message "What hath God wrought". The American code used at the time had irregular spacing, so European operators adopted a simpler version that became International Morse code in 1865. That international version, now maintained by the ITU, is what this translator uses.
Short codes went to common letters: E is a single dot and T a single dash. Ships used Morse for distress calls until 1999, when satellite-based systems took over, and the familiar SOS signal was chosen in 1906 because it is simple to send and hard to mistake.
Want to learn the letters themselves? The Morse code alphabet chart lists every character with audio.