Morse code translator

Morse code in both directions

Morse code writes letters and numbers as short and long signals, dots and dashes, that can be sent by light, sound, a radio key or a tap on a table. It was developed for the telegraph in the 1830s and 1840s and is still used by radio amateurs, in aviation and navigation beacons, and as an accessibility tool for some people. It is also a favorite puzzle and party trick. This translator handles it both ways.

How to use it

Type any text and the Morse code appears: letters are separated by a space and words by a slash. To decode, paste dots and dashes with the same convention. The tool notices if what you typed is Morse code and translates to text, so there is no button to press to choose the direction. Symbols that are not on the Morse alphabet are skipped, with a warning listing them, and code groups it does not recognize show up as a question mark.

What is included

The international Morse alphabet: the letters A to Z, the digits 0 to 9 and common punctuation such as the full stop, comma, question mark, apostrophe, slash, brackets, colon, equals sign, plus, hyphen, quotation mark and at sign. The letters with an accent, like Ñ, É and Ü, are also covered. The distress signal SOS is three dots, three dashes and three dots, sent without a pause.

Hear it

Press play to listen to the code as a tone. The timing follows the standard: a dash lasts three times as long as a dot, the gap between the parts of a letter is one dot, the gap between letters is three and the gap between words is seven. You can choose the speed, from a slow 5 words per minute for learning to a fast 30, and the pitch of the tone.

What it does not do

It does not decode audio from a microphone or light signals. It translates the text you enter. Everything works in your browser and nothing is uploaded. To turn text into binary or hexadecimal instead, use the binary, decimal and hexadecimal converter.