Morse Code Translator with Sound

What Is Morse Code?

Morse code encodes every letter, digit, and punctuation mark as a sequence of short and long signals — dits and dahs, written as dots and dashes. Developed for the electric telegraph in the 1830s and 40s and later standardized internationally, it can be sent as sound, light, radio pulses, or taps, which is why it survived long after the telegraph itself: a signal lamp, a flashlight, or a single-tone radio is all you need. Amateur (ham) radio operators still use it daily, and the aviation world still identifies navigation beacons with Morse callsigns.

How Morse Timing Works

Morse timing is measured in units, and the whole rhythm follows five rules:

• A dit (dot) lasts 1 unit.
• A dah (dash) lasts 3 units.
• The gap between symbols inside one character is 1 unit.
• The gap between characters is 3 units.
• The gap between words is 7 units.

Speed is quoted in words per minute using the standard word PARIS (50 units long including its trailing gap), which gives the formula: one unit = 1200 ÷ WPM milliseconds. At 15 WPM a dit is 80ms; at 30 WPM it is 40ms. The player on this page follows these ratios exactly, so what you hear is what a radio operator would send.

Worked Example: SOS

The international distress signal SOS is ... --- ...— three dits, three dahs, three dits. It was chosen because the pattern is simple and unmistakable in bad conditions, not because it abbreviates a phrase (“save our souls” was attached to it afterward). Type sos above and press play: you will hear three short beeps, three long, three short, with single-unit gaps inside each letter and 3-unit gaps between the letters.

Tips for Learning Morse

• Learn by sound, not by chart. Fluent operators recognize each character as a rhythm, the way you recognize a spoken word.
• Use the Farnsworth method: play characters fast (18–20 WPM) but leave extra space between them. This page’s speed control makes a good drill tool.
• Start with E, T, A, N — the shortest codes — then add letters a few at a time.
• Practice both directions: use the swap button to decode pasted Morse back into text.

Frequently Asked Questions