Morse code translator in both directions
This Morse code translator converts letters, digits and common punctuation into International Morse code, and turns Morse back into text. It shows two linked boxes: type text on one side and the dots and dashes appear on the other, or type Morse code and read the text — whichever side you edit drives the conversion.
Example
Text:
SOS Help is on the wayMorse code:
... --- ... / .... . .-.. .--. / .. ... / --- -. / - .... . / .-- .- -.--And back again: ... --- ... / .... . .-.. .--. → SOS HELP.
Notation used
- A dot is
.and a dash is-. - Letters are separated by one space.
- Words are separated by
/. When decoding, a vertical bar or three or more spaces also count as a word break. - Each line is translated separately, so line breaks are preserved.
- Typographic dots and dashes (
•,·,–,—) and underscores are accepted when decoding, which helps with text copied from web pages.
Supported characters
The 26 letters (Morse has no case, so output text is uppercase), the digits 0–9 and the punctuation . , ? ' ! / ( ) & : ; = + - _ " $ @. Characters without a Morse equivalent, such as ~ or emoji, are skipped when encoding. When decoding, an unknown sequence is shown as � so you can spot it.
Timing, for sending by light or sound
| Element | Length |
|---|---|
| Dot | 1 unit |
| Dash | 3 units |
| Gap inside a letter | 1 unit |
| Gap between letters | 3 units |
| Gap between words | 7 units |
At 20 words per minute, one unit lasts 60 milliseconds. Distress signal SOS is traditionally sent as one continuous sequence ...---... without letter gaps.
A little history
Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed their telegraph code in the 1830s and 1840s. The International Morse code used today was standardised later and is maintained by the ITU (Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1). It is still used by amateur radio operators, in aviation navigation beacons that identify themselves in Morse, and as an accessibility input method on some devices.
For other ways of representing text, try Text to Binary or Text to ASCII Codes. The translator runs in your browser.
Common decoding problems
- Missing letter gaps.
...---...without spaces could be SOS, but also many other combinations. The translator needs a space between letters to know where one ends, so add them before decoding. - Prosigns. Operators send some procedure signals as one run, such as AR (
.-.-., end of message) and SK (...-.-, end of contact). They decode as the characters that share their pattern, like+for AR, or as�when there is none. - Look-alike dashes. Word processors turn hyphens into en or em dashes. Those are accepted, but other symbols are not: a stray character stops decoding with an error that names it, while
�marks a dot-dash sequence that is not in the code table.
If you are learning to receive Morse, practise with Farnsworth timing: characters are sent at full speed but with longer gaps between them, so you learn each letter as a sound rather than counting dots and dashes.