Text to Morse Code
Translate text into Morse code dots and dashes.
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This translator turns English letters and digits into International Morse Code, using dots and dashes with a space between letters and a slash between words. SOS becomes ... --- ... and Hello World becomes .... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -.., ready to copy for a puzzle, a lesson or signalling practice.
What the translator converts, and what it skips
- Letters A to Z in either case, and digits 0 to 9, each of which is five elements long (1 is
.----, 0 is-----). - Each space becomes a
/. Two spaces in a row produce two slashes. - Everything else is dropped without warning: punctuation, accented letters, Hindi and other scripts, and emoji.
- Line breaks are dropped too, without adding a slash, so the last word of one line runs straight into the first word of the next. Put a space at the end of each line, or keep your message on one line.
For example, Hi there, 2 you! gives .... .. / - .... . .-. . / ..--- / -.-- --- ..-: the comma and exclamation mark simply vanish. Standard Morse does have codes for punctuation, such as .-.-.- for a full stop and ..--.. for a question mark, but this tool does not output them.
Timing: how Morse is actually sent
On air or with a torch, spacing carries as much meaning as the symbols. The ITU standard defines everything in units:
| Element | Length |
|---|---|
| Dot | 1 unit |
| Dash | 3 units |
| Gap inside a letter | 1 unit |
| Gap between letters | 3 units |
| Gap between words | 7 units |
Speed in words per minute is based on the word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long including the gap after it. In the text output, a single space stands for the 3-unit letter gap and / for the 7-unit word gap.
SOS and other patterns worth knowing
In a real emergency, SOS is sent as one continuous sequence (...---...) without letter gaps, so it is recognised as a single signal rather than three letters. The most common letters have the shortest codes: E is a single dot and T a single dash, a design choice that made telegraph messages faster to send. Letters such as Q, Y and J need four elements.
Ideas for using the output
- Learning Morse: convert short words you know, then try reading them back without looking. Practise with sound or light rather than the written form once you know the letters.
- Puzzles and escape rooms: hide a clue in Morse on a card, a door code or a blinking light.
- Gifts and crafts: bracelets, wall art and engravings that spell a name with long and short beads or marks.
To read Morse back into English, paste it into the Morse Code Translator, which decodes the same dot, dash and slash format.