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Morse Code Translator

Translate text to Morse code or decode Morse to English, then play it as sound, light or vibration at true timing. Free, with no sign-up – and it all runs in your browser.

Up to 5,000 characters

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Morse code
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Each letter shows here with its dots and dashes. Select one to play from it.

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How to use the Morse code translator

  1. Type or paste your message into the box. Text to Morse is the default; if you paste dots and dashes, the translator offers to switch to Morse to text.

  2. For Morse to English, put one space between letters and a slash (/) between words, like .... .. / - .... . .-. . for HI THERE. Three spaces also count as a word gap.

  3. Pick a code table if your message isn’t International Morse: American, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese or Korean.

  4. Press Play to hear it, or switch to Light or Vibrate. Set the speed (5 to 40 WPM) and the tone (300 to 1000 Hz) on the sliders.

  5. Copy the result, share it as a link or a puzzle, or download it as a WAV or MP3 file or a text file.

What the translator does

One Morse translator for both directions: a Morse code converter from text, and a decoder back to English.

Text to Morse code

Type English and the Morse code encoder writes each letter as dots and dashes as you go, with one space between letters and a slash between words: HELLO becomes .... . .-.. .-.. ---. Numbers and the ITU punctuation marks are covered too, so the written Morse code is ready to copy. To copy it one word per line or with · and — symbols, use the English to Morse code translator.

Morse code to English

Paste Morse and the decoder reads it back as text. It accepts the dot and dash look-alikes that copy and paste produces (·, •, —, –) and treats an underscore as a dash, so Morse copied from a forum or a puzzle still decodes. Codes that aren’t in the table show as ? and are counted under the box. To read a message letter by letter, open Morse code to English.

It works as a secret code translator for notes and games, but Morse is a public code, not a cipher: anyone with the chart can read it. For a real challenge, share it as a puzzle: your friend hears the Morse and types the answer.

Hear it, see it, feel it

  • SoundA radio tone (sine) or the clicks of a telegraph sounder, at the speed and pitch you set.
  • LightA lamp strip in the translator flashes with each dot and dash, the way a signal lamp sends it. It pauses if your device asks for reduced motion.
  • VibrationOn Android phones the message buzzes in your hand; on an iPhone (iOS 18 or later) you feel a tick as each dot and dash starts and ends.
  • The tapeA Morse code visualizer that draws every letter with its own dots and dashes to length; select a letter to play from there.
  • Timing and soundFarnsworth spacing (letters at full speed, longer gaps between them), extra word spacing, repeat and volume. To keep a copy, download the message as a WAV or MP3 file, or make sound files with presets in the Morse code generator.

Code tables

Morse code isn’t one table. The translator has eight:

The translator’s eight code tables
Code tableUsed for
InternationalThe ITU standard: English and most languages written in Latin letters, plus É, Ä, Ö, Ü, Ñ and the other accented letters in on-air use
American (Railroad)The original 1840s landline code, with its spaced letters and long dashes
Russian (Cyrillic)Russian and other Cyrillic text
GreekGreek letters
HebrewHebrew letters, final forms sent as their base letter
ArabicArabic letters
Japanese (Wabun)Kana, sent with the Japanese Wabun code
Korean (SKATS)Hangul, sent with the Korean SKATS mapping

Morse code in Spanish uses the International table plus Ñ (--.--), so pick International for Spanish, French or German.

Examples

Check any of these by hand against the Morse code alphabet chart. Each one is a Morse code sample you can play: pick SOS, Hello, I love you or Help under the empty box, or paste any line into the translator and press Play.

Text to Morse code

  • SOS

    ... --- ...

  • HELLO

    .... . .-.. .-.. ---

  • I LOVE YOU

    .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-

  • HELP

    .... . .-.. .--.

  • 73 (best regards, in radio shorthand)

    --... ...--

And the other way, from Morse to English:

  • .... .. / - .... . .-. .

    HI THERE

  • -.-. --.-

    CQ (calling any station)

  • --. --- --- -.. / -- --- .-. -. .. -. --.

    GOOD MORNING

The whole alphabet, the numbers 0 to 9, punctuation and accented letters each have a page with sound. The most famous signal of all has its own page: SOS in Morse code.

The Morse code alphabet at true timing

Each character is drawn to scale: a dash is three dots long and every gap is one dot. Select any character to hear it and see how it is timed.

See the full Morse code alphabet chart, with accented letters and signals

Morse code timing and the PARIS standard

The translator follows the International Morse code of ITU-R Recommendation M.1677-1. Morse is timed in units: a dot is one unit and a dash is three. The gap inside a letter is one unit, between letters three, and between words seven. Speed is counted in words per minute using the standard word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long with the word gap after it, so at 20 WPM one unit lasts 60 milliseconds. Playback, the light and the downloaded audio all use these units, which is why the result sounds like real CW and not a string of evenly spaced beeps.

PARIS on a 50-unit rulerP: dot dash dash dot; A: dot dash; R: dot dash dot; I: dot dot; S: dot dot dot; then a 7-unit gap between words. A dot lasts 1 unit, a dash 3, the gap inside a letter 1, between letters 3 and between words 7.PARIS01020304050Dot 1Letter gap 3Dash 3Word gap 7
The word PARIS in Morse code on a 50-unit ruler. Each tick is one unit.
Dot
1 unit
Dash
3 units
Gap inside a letter
1 unit
Gap between letters
3 units
Gap between words
7 units
One unit at 20 WPM
60 ms

Learn it the Koch way

Learn every character at full speed from the first lesson. Start with K and M, then add the next character each time you copy 90% of a lesson correctly.

Start the Koch trainer
  1. K
  2. M
  3. U
  4. R
  5. E
  6. S
  7. N
  8. A
  9. P
  10. T
  11. L
  12. W
  13. I
  14. .
  15. J
  16. Z
  17. =
  18. F
  19. O
  20. Y
  21. ,
  22. V
  23. G
  24. 5
  25. /
  26. Q
  27. 9
  28. 2
  29. H
  30. 3
  31. 8
  32. B
  33. ?
  34. 4
  35. 7
  36. C
  37. 1
  38. D
  39. 6
  40. 0
  41. X

Morse code tools

Decoders, senders, trainers and games. 43 tools, all free, no sign-up, and each one runs in your browser.

Show tools

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Send

Practise

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Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about the translator

Yes. Morse code is a fixed table of dots and dashes, so any message can be translated letter by letter in either direction. Type text into the translator above to get Morse, or paste Morse to read it in English. For Morse you hear rather than read, the audio file decoder and the microphone decoder turn beeps into text.

Paste it into the translator and switch to Morse to text: the English appears as you type. Leave one space between letters and a slash between words, so .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..- reads I LOVE YOU. Underscores and pasted symbols like · and — count as dots and dashes, and any code the table doesn’t know shows as a question mark.

No. Morse code is not one of the languages Google Translate supports, so it can’t turn dots and dashes into words or back. Morse is a code for letters rather than a language, and a Morse code translator like this one does the job directly: it converts both ways, plays the result as sound or light, and runs in your browser.

No. 143 is a pager-era number code for I love you (1, 4 and 3 are the letters in each word), not Morse code. In Morse, I love you is .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-, and the number 143 is .---- ....- ...--. The I love you in Morse code page plays it and links to tools that flash it or make it into a bracelet, necklace or tattoo.

The International Morse alphabet has 26 letters, from A .- and B -... to Y -.-- and Z --.., plus the digits 0 to 9 and the punctuation marks. E is the shortest letter, a single dot, and T is a single dash. The chart below the translator draws every letter to scale, and the Morse code alphabet page lists them all with sound.

Three dots, ..., are the letter S. Three dashes, ---, are O, so ... --- ... is SOS. Dots make different characters depending on how many sit together: E is one dot, I two, S three, H four and the digit 5 five. Eight dots in a row is the error signal operators send to cancel a mistake. Paste any pattern into the translator to read it.

Tap short for a dot and about three times as long for a dash, with a short pause between letters and a longer one between words. The Morse keyboard turns taps on two keys or a touch screen into letters as you go, so you can check what you sent. Knocking on a wall is usually tap code, a different code with its own translator.

Yes. Amateur radio operators send and receive it every day, and aviation radio beacons called VORs still identify themselves in Morse code, which pilots check before relying on them. People with limited movement also use it to type with one or two switches. It is popular for gifts, tattoos and puzzles too, and easy to learn by ear with the Koch course.

Still have questions? Contact us

Trust and limits

This free Morse code translator works online in your browser: the text you type, the audio and the light are made on your device and nothing is uploaded. A shared link carries the message after the # in the address, which never reaches our server. The translator reads standard dots, dashes and gaps; it does not decode audio, which is what the audio file decoder is for. Characters a code table doesn’t have are left out and named under the box. Timing follows ITU-R M.1677-1. Maintained by Translate Morse Code, an independent site; last updated October 2026.