Morse Code Translator

What is Morse Code?

Morse code is a character encoding that represents letters, numbers, and punctuation as sequences of short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes). The current international standard, ITU-R Recommendation M.1677-1, defines the code for 26 Latin letters, 10 digits, and common punctuation, transmitted as sound, light, or radio signals.

Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed the original code in the 1830s and 1840s for the electric telegraph. It remains in use today in amateur radio, aviation navigation beacon identifiers, and accessibility input systems, and it survives in emergency signaling through the SOS distress pattern.

All translation, audio synthesis, and WAV rendering on this page happen in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded to a server.

How Do You Convert Text to Morse Code and Back?

The translator detects the direction automatically. If your input contains only dots, dashes, slashes, and spaces, it is decoded as Morse; anything else is encoded to Morse. You never have to pick a mode.

Text to Morse Code

Type or paste text and each character is replaced with its code from the selected alphabet table: Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, or Persian. Codes are separated by single spaces, and each space between words becomes a / separator. Unsupported characters produce a clear error naming the exact character instead of silently dropping it.

Morse Code to Text

Paste Morse code such as ... --- ... and it is decoded back to readable text using the same alphabet table. This is useful for checking your own keying practice or decoding a message a friend sent you. For other classic text ciphers, try the TestMu AI Caesar Cipher Decoder or ROT-13 Encoder/Decoder.

How Do You Use This Morse Code Translator?

• Enter your message: Type or paste text or Morse code into the input field, pick a preset (SOS, HELLO WORLD, MAYDAY), upload a .txt file, or enable Tap Input and key dots and dashes with the spacebar.
• Choose the alphabet: Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, or Persian. The chart and error messages follow the selected alphabet.
• Read the output: With Auto Update on, the translation appears as you type; otherwise click Translate. Copy or download the result as a .txt file.
• Tune the playback: Set the character speed (WPM), Farnsworth effective speed, tone frequency (300 to 1000 Hz), and volume, then toggle Sound, Light flash, or Vibrate output.
• Play, save, or share: Use Play, Stop, Repeat, and Mute to hear the code, Download .wav for an audio file, or Share to copy a link that restores your message and settings.

What Are the Morse Codes for Letters, Numbers, and Punctuation?

The tables below list the International Morse Code assignments from ITU-R M.1677-1, the same tables this translator uses for the Latin alphabet. If you work with non-Latin scripts often, the TestMu AI Unicode Text Converter is a useful companion.

Alphabets in Morse Code

Numbers in Morse Code

Special Characters in Morse Code

How Does the Morse Code Translator Work?

Translation is a table lookup: each character maps to its dot-dash sequence in the selected alphabet (the Latin table follows ITU-R M.1677-1, and Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian use the standard non-Latin extensions). For example, PARIS becomes .--. .- .-. .. ...

Playback follows the standard timing units: a dot is 1 unit, a dash is 3, gaps inside a character are 1, gaps between letters are 3, and gaps between words are 7. At the default 20 WPM a unit is 60 ms. Lowering the Farnsworth speed keeps each character at full speed but stretches the gaps between letters and words, the beginner-friendly spacing method defined in the ARRL Farnsworth timing standard.

Audio is generated as a sine tone at your chosen frequency with the Web Audio API, and Download .wav renders the same timeline offline into a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV file. The Share button encodes your message and settings into the page URL so the link reopens the translator in the same state.

What Are Common Mistakes in Morse Code Translation?

• Incorrect spacing: A single space separates letters and / separates words. Merging . . (E E) into .. silently turns two letters into I.
• Confusing dots and dashes by ear: A dash is exactly 3 times a dot. If your keying drifts between lengths, the decoder cannot tell them apart, and neither can a human listener.
• Mixing up near-identical codes: E (.) versus I (..), or S (...) versus H (....), are the most common reading errors at higher speeds.
• Starting practice at full speed: Slow overall speed with full-speed characters (the Farnsworth slider on this page) trains recognition better than slowing everything down.

How Can I Learn Morse Code?

• Learn by sound, not by chart: Set the WPM slider to 15 or higher and the Farnsworth slider to 5, then listen to single letters. Full-speed characters with long gaps build sound recognition instead of dot counting.
• Start with the short codes: E (.), T (-), A (.-), N (-.), I (..), and M (--) cover a surprising share of English text and give quick wins.
• Key it yourself: Turn on Tap Input and send letters with the spacebar. The translator decodes your keying live, so you see immediately whether your dots, dashes, and gaps are clean.
• Practice with real phrases: Load the SOS, MAYDAY, or CQ presets, play them on repeat, and write down what you hear before checking the output field.

What Are Some Interesting Facts About Morse Code?

• The first official Morse message in the US was "What hath God wrought", sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844, to open the Washington to Baltimore telegraph line.
• SOS was standardized in 1906 at the International Radiotelegraph Convention. It was chosen for its unmistakable nine-symbol rhythm, not as an abbreviation (SOS, Wikipedia).
• Aviation still transmits Morse: VOR and NDB navigation beacons broadcast their station identifiers in Morse so pilots can confirm they are tuned to the right aid.
• It works as assistive input: Morse keyboards let people with limited mobility type with one or two switches, an input method Google ships in its Gboard mobile keyboard.
• It shows up in popular culture: Films, song intros, jewelry, and tattoos use dot-dash patterns to embed hidden messages.

What Should You Try Next?

If you are testing how an app signals users, pair this translator with the TestMu AI Phone Vibration Test, which includes an SOS vibration pattern, and verify haptic and audio behavior on 10,000+ real devices instead of emulators. For more encoding tools, the Base64 Encode tool covers the most common binary-to-text format.