Translate text to international Morse code and back, covering letters, digits and common punctuation, with configurable word separators.
Show calculation steps
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A variable-length code
Morse assigns short sequences to common letters and long ones to rare letters, so ordinary text transmits faster than a fixed-width code would allow. E is a single dot; Q is four symbols. It is one of the earliest examples of the idea behind modern compression.
Worked example
SOS → ... --- ... HELLO → .... . .-.. .-.. --- letter gap = 3 units, word gap = 7 units
Timing is part of the code
A dash is three dots long, the gap between symbols is one unit, between letters three, between words seven. Those ratios are what make it decodable by ear; without them the same sequence of dots and dashes is ambiguous.
Still in use
Amateur radio, aviation navigation beacons that identify themselves in Morse continuously, and emergency signalling, because a signal that is only on or off survives noise, weak power and improvised equipment that would defeat voice.
Limits
The translator covers letters, digits and common punctuation in the ITU standard. Prosigns and non-Latin extensions are outside its scope. Everything runs in your browser.
How to use the Morse Code Translator
- Paste text to encode, or Morse code to decode.
- Set the direction and, for encoding, the word separator.
- Click "Translate".
Frequently asked questions
What are the timing rules in real Morse?
A dash lasts three dot units. The gap between symbols within a letter is one unit, between letters three units, and between words seven units. Written Morse uses spaces and a slash to stand in for those gaps.
Which characters can Morse represent?
The 26 Latin letters, the ten digits and about a dozen punctuation marks. There is no case distinction, and no coverage for accented or non-Latin characters – so the tool lists anything it had to skip.
Is Morse code a cipher?
No. It is a character encoding designed for transmission over a channel that can only signal on and off. Like any encoding, it is public and carries no secrecy.
Why is SOS chosen as a distress signal?
Because its pattern of three dots, three dashes, three dots is unmistakable and easy to send under stress. The letters are a consequence of the pattern, not an abbreviation of any phrase.
