Morse Code Translator
Text to Morse and back, with adjustable speed and pitch. Runs entirely in your browser.
Morse alphabet
How written Morse is laid out
Morse has only two symbols, a short mark and a long one, and everything else is spacing. A dit is the unit; a dah is three dits long. The gap between marks inside one letter is one dit, the gap between letters is three, and the gap between words is seven. Those ratios are the code, which is why the same message sounds correct at any speed as long as the proportions hold.
Written down, this page follows the usual convention: a single space between letters and a forward slash between words. So SOS becomes ... --- ... and HELLO WORLD becomes .... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -...
Decoding is deliberately forgiving
Morse pasted from elsewhere rarely matches one convention. When decoding, bullets and middle dots are read as dits, en dashes, em dashes and underscores as dahs, and a slash, a pipe or a run of three or more spaces all count as a word break. Anything that is still not a valid symbol comes back as a question mark and the count is reported above the result rather than being hidden.
What the code cannot carry
International Morse covers the twenty-six Latin letters, the ten digits and a short list of punctuation. There is no case, so capitals and lower case encode identically and decoded text comes back lower case. There is no symbol for accented letters or emoji either; those are left out, and the tool names exactly which characters it dropped.
Speed, and what words per minute means
Morse speed is quoted in words per minute against a standard reference word, PARIS, chosen because its length in dits is typical. That gives a simple rule: one dit lasts 1.2 seconds divided by the words per minute. At 15 wpm a dit is 80 milliseconds, at 20 wpm it is 60, and at 30 wpm it is 40.
| Speed | Dit length | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| 5 wpm | 240 ms | Learning the shapes of individual letters |
| 13 wpm | 92 ms | The old amateur licence standard |
| 20 wpm | 60 ms | Comfortable conversational speed |
| 35 wpm | 34 ms | Fast contest work |
Pitch does not affect the message at all, only how easy it is to pick out. Somewhere between 500 and 700 Hz is the usual choice, because it sits where hearing is sensitive without being tiring over a long session.
How to use it
Type into the upper box and the translation appears below as you go. The Text to Morse and Morse to text switch sets the direction, and Swap moves the result up into the input and flips the direction with it, which is the quickest way to check that a message round-trips. Play sounds the Morse at the speed and pitch you have set, whichever box it is currently in.
Questions
How are words separated in written Morse?
A single space separates letters and a forward slash separates words, which is the usual written convention. When decoding, a slash, a pipe or a run of three or more spaces are all accepted as a word break, so Morse copied from almost anywhere will read correctly.
What does words per minute actually control?
The length of a single dit, from which every other duration follows. The standard reference word is PARIS, so one dit is 1.2 seconds divided by the words per minute. At 15 wpm a dit is 80 milliseconds; at 30 wpm it is 40.
Why are some of my characters missing?
International Morse covers the twenty-six Latin letters, the ten digits and a short list of punctuation. Anything outside that, including accented letters and emoji, has no symbol and is left out. The tool names exactly which characters it dropped rather than losing them silently.
Is Morse code case sensitive?
No. Morse has no notion of upper and lower case, so text is encoded the same either way and decoded output is lower case. Case is simply not information the code can carry.
Is my text sent to a server?
No. Translation and audio both run inside your browser, and this tool has no backend, so nothing you type is transmitted, logged or stored.
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