Morse Code to English Translator
Paste dots and dashes to turn Morse code into English as you type, then hear it, flash it or check it letter by letter. Free, with no sign-up, and it all runs in your browser.
Try an example:
Each letter shows here with its dots and dashes. Select one to play from it.
Morse you can hear, see or photograph? Use the audio file decoder, the microphone decoder, the camera light decoder or the image decoder.
How to use
Paste the Morse code into the box, or tap one of the examples under it. The translator already reads Morse to text.
Leave one space between letters and a slash (/) between words. A bar (|), a line break or three spaces also start a new word. On a phone, the keys under the box type dots, dashes and gaps.
Read the English as you type. A question mark marks a group that isn’t in the code table, and the line under the box counts them.
Turn on Letter by letter to see each character over its code, and tap one to hear it. Press Play for the whole message as sound, light or vibration.
Copy the English, have it read aloud, share it as a link or a puzzle, or download a text file with the Morse and its translation.
What it does
A Morse code decoder to text that works the moment you paste: no Translate button, nothing to set first. Want to decode this Morse code from a comment, a puzzle or a tattoo and see what it says? Paste it, and the English appears in the Text pane.
- Reads Morse pasted from anywhereIt takes ·, • and ● as dots, −, – and — as dashes, and an underscore as a dash. A slash, a bar, a backslash, a line break, a tab or three spaces mark a word gap.
- Shows what it can’t readA group that isn’t a character becomes ?, so you see where the message broke. The count sits under the box, and the tape outlines each one.
- Knows more than A to ZDigits, punctuation, accented letters such as Ñ and É, and the procedural signals:
...---...as one group decodes as <SOS>, eight dots as <HH>. - Breaks it downLetter by letter puts each character over its dots and dashes; tap one to hear just that letter. Prosigns carry their meaning, such as Error under <HH>, and the line under the grid gives the message’s length in units and seconds.
- Plays it backHear it at 5 to 40 WPM, watch it flash or feel it buzz, or have the English read aloud by your device’s own voice.
The Morse code translator works in both directions, and English to Morse code opens ready to write. Call it a Morse code converter to text, a dot translator or a Morse code identifier: it translates Morse to English one group at a time. It is a Morse code solver, not a code cracker: it reads plain Morse, not a message enciphered before it was sent.
How it works
The decoder follows the International Morse code of ITU-R Recommendation M.1677-1, the table on the Morse code alphabet chart. Reading Morse code by hand, or deciphering it with pen and paper, takes the four steps the decoder follows:
Split the message at the spaces. Each group is one character.
Look each group up. The 26 letters are one to four symbols, the digits five and most punctuation six, so a longer group is usually two characters that lost their space.
Start a new word at every slash or wide gap.
Mark a group that isn’t in the table and read on.
By ear it is the same table, timed: a dash lasts three dots, the gap between letters three dots and between words seven. The home page explains the timing, and the audio file decoder does the listening.
Examples
A worked decode you can check by hand: -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
| Group | Letter | Group | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
-- | M | -.-. | C |
--- | O | --- | O |
.-. | R | -.. | D |
... | S | . | E |
. | E |
The slash starts the second word: MORSE CODE.
What you paste, what the decoder reads, and the English:
| Pasted | Read as | English |
|---|---|---|
··· −−− ··· | ... --- ... | SOS |
_ __ __ _ | - -- -- - | TMMT |
−·−− · ··· | −· −−− | -.-- . ... / -. --- | YES NO |
.... .. - .... . .-. . (three spaces) | .... .. / - .... . .-. . | HI THERE |
•••|−−−|••• | ... / --- / ... | S O S |
...---... (no spaces) | ...---... | <SOS> |
.... . .-.. .-..--- (a lost space) | .... . .-.. .-..--- | HEL? |
In the last row, L and O ran together, so the decoder marks the group instead of guessing. Patterns people ask about:
| Pattern | Reads as |
|---|---|
. .. ... .... ..... | E, I, S, H, 5 |
...... or ....... (6 or 7 dots) | ? (no such character) |
........ (8 dots) | <HH>, the error signal |
- -- --- ---- ----- | T, M, O, CH, 0 |
...- (three dots and a dash) | V |
-.. (a dash and two dots) | D |
--.-- (dash dash dot dash dash) | Ñ; spaced, -- .-- MW, --. -- GM, - -.-- TY |
.. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..- | I LOVE YOU |
... --- ... | SOS |
Trust and limits
The decoder runs in your browser: what you paste, the sound, the light and the spoken English are made on your device, and nothing is uploaded. Only playback settings are saved, on this device; the message never is. A shared link carries the message after the # in the address, which never reaches our server.
It reads written Morse only; sound, light and pictures have their own decoders. It can’t guess where a lost space belongs, so it marks the group. Morse has no lower case, so the English comes out in capitals. International is the default; seven other tables, from American to Korean, are in the Code table menu. Maintained by Translate Morse Code, an independent site; last updated October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
About the Morse code to English translator
Read as written, _ __ __ _ is TMMT. Underscores stand in for dashes, so the groups are - T, -- M, -- M and - T. If the gaps weren’t meant to be there, six dashes in a row aren’t a character, and the decoder shows a question mark. Tap the example under the box to see each code with its letter.
Three dots and a dash, ...-, is the letter V. With no gap after it, the same start makes other signals: ...-. is the understood signal, ...-.- is the end-of-work signal operators write as SK, and ...-... is Ś. With a space, ...- - reads VT. The gaps decide the letter, so copy them as carefully as the dots.
Dash dash dot dash dash, --.--, is Ñ, the Spanish N with a tilde, when it is one group. Split by spaces it reads differently: -- .-- is MW, --. -- is GM and - -.-- is TY. Ñ and the other accented letters with codes of their own each have a page with sound.
Six or seven dots aren’t a character in International Morse, so the decoder shows a question mark. Usually two letters lost the space between them: six dots can be SS (... ...), HI (.... ..), IH (.. ....) or 5E (..... .). Eight dots is a real signal, the error mark operators send before they repeat a word. Look for the missing gap and add the space.
A question mark stands for a group of dots and dashes that isn’t in the code table you picked. The line under the box counts them, and the tape outlines each one. The usual causes are a lost space that fused two letters, one symbol too many, plain text typed into the Morse box, or a message in another table, such as American or Russian Morse. Fix the group and the letter appears.
Yes, with the decoder made for each. The audio file decoder reads a recording or a video, the microphone decoder listens live, the camera light decoder reads a flashing light, and the image decoder reads Morse drawn or printed in a picture. This page decodes Morse written as dots and dashes.