International Morse code
Morse code writes letters as short and long signals: dots and dashes. Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed it for the electric telegraph in the 1830s and 1840s, and the international version standardised in 1865 is still used by amateur radio operators, pilots identifying radio beacons, and anyone who needs to signal with a torch, a horn or a tap on a pipe.
This translator converts text to International Morse code and back. Letters are separated by spaces and words by a slash, the usual way Morse is written on paper.
How to use it
- Choose a direction: text to Morse, or Morse to text.
- Type your message, or paste dots and dashes.
- When writing Morse yourself, put a space between letters and a slash between words, as in ... --- ... / .... . .-.. .--.
- Copy the result. Characters Morse code has no symbol for are left out.
Example: a distress call and a year
SOS 2026
... --- ... / ..--- ----- ..--- -....
Digits always have five symbols. In real use, SOS is sent as one run of nine signals without the gaps between letters.
Timing is the real alphabet
Spoken or sent Morse has no written spaces, only silence of precise lengths. A dash lasts three dots. The gap inside a letter lasts one dot, the gap between letters three dots, and the gap between words seven dots. Operators learn letters as sound patterns, dit-dah for A, rather than as images of dots and dashes, which is why learning by ear is faster.
Common letters got short codes: E is a single dot and T a single dash. Morse and Vail are said to have counted the type in a printer's case to find which letters English uses most.
SOS and other famous signals
SOS was chosen as the international distress signal in 1906 because three dots, three dashes and three dots are impossible to mistake, not because it stands for any words. Ships used it until satellite-based distress systems replaced Morse at sea in 1999. Radio amateurs still use abbreviations such as CQ, a call to any station, and 73, best regards.
What the translator supports
It covers the 26 letters, the digits 0 to 9, and common punctuation: full stop, comma, question mark, apostrophe, exclamation mark, slash, brackets, ampersand, colon, semicolon, equals, plus, hyphen, underscore, quotation mark, dollar and at sign. Letters are not case sensitive, because Morse has no capitals. Accented letters and other scripts have separate national extensions that are not included.
Questions
Can I hear the Morse code?
No, this tool shows dots and dashes only. Read them aloud as dit and dah to practise.
Why did some characters disappear?
Morse has no symbol for them, for example emoji, accented letters or the hash sign, so they are skipped when encoding.
Is Morse code still used?
Yes, by amateur radio operators worldwide and in aviation and navigation beacons that identify themselves in Morse.