Morse Code Translator

The translator encodes and decodes in the same box, so you can switch direction by pasting something different.

1. Type text, or paste dots and dashes, into the Input box. In Morse, put a space between letters and a slash between words.
2. Leave Mode on Auto detect, or choose Text to code or Code to text.
3. Move the Speed (WPM) slider anywhere from 5 to 30. The default is 15.
4. Press Play to hear the code as 600 Hz beeps. The button becomes Stop while it sounds.
5. Copy or download the text result.

Encoding writes letters separated by a space and words separated by / . For example, Hello, World? becomes .... . .-.. .-.. --- --..-- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -.. ..--... Characters without a Morse code, such as accented letters and emoji, are dropped. Decoding accepts / or | between words, or three or more spaces, and shows ? for a group it does not recognise. Decoded text is capitals, since Morse has no case, and -- --- .-. ... . reads MORSE. The sound is made in your browser with the Web Audio API; there is no audio file to save.

International Morse is defined in units. A dot lasts one unit and a dash three. The gap between parts of a letter is one unit, between letters three, and between words seven. Speed is measured with the word PARIS, which is 50 units long, so one unit lasts 1200 divided by the speed in milliseconds. At 15 WPM that is 80 ms, giving 80 ms dots and 240 ms dashes. At 20 WPM it is 60 ms.

Worked example: SOS is S (three dots), O (three dashes) and S, with two letter gaps. That is 5 + 11 + 5 + 3 + 3 = 27 units, so at 15 WPM it plays for 27 x 80 ms, about 2.2 seconds. The player follows these proportions for dots, dashes and letter gaps. Its gap between words is nine units rather than seven, a little roomier, which helps when you are learning. The speed slider changes everything together, so there is no separate spacing control.

The most frequent English letters have the shortest codes, which is why E is one dot and T one dash.

The tool writes SOS as ... --- ... with normal letter gaps. A genuine SOS call is sent run together as one signal, so treat the audio as practice, not a distress transmission. The punctuation table also includes a few common extras, such as the exclamation mark and the dollar sign, that are not part of the ITU list. Prosigns such as AR and SK are not special: typing them gives their letters. Digits always use five elements, which makes them easy to spot by ear, because even the shortest numerals are longer than most common letters.

Listening is the quickest way to learn, because real Morse is heard as rhythms, not as dots and dashes on a page. Encode a short word, hide the output and play it back at 10 to 15 WPM until you can write down what you hear. Puzzle makers and geocachers use the same trick in reverse: encode a clue, then check by ear that it sounds right. The player cannot listen to audio or decode a recording, and the tone pitch is fixed. A good routine is ten minutes a day: write a short sentence, encode it, play it at 12 to 15 WPM with the text hidden, and copy down what you hear before checking. For other classic codes try the NATO phonetic alphabet translator, the binary translator or a shift cipher in the Caesar cipher tool.