Morse code translator

Morse code translator with sound — hear any word played back

This is a Morse code translator with sound built in. Every translation includes real audio playback — no external players, no downloads required to hear the output. Type a word, hit Play, and the Web Audio API renders it as a clean 600 Hz sine tone at your selected WPM. It sounds exactly the way you would hear it on a ham radio at that speed, because it uses the same PARIS timing standard every real Morse tool uses.

The sound frequency is adjustable from 400 to 1000 Hz. 600 Hz is the standard CW operator tone and what every serious training tool uses, but if you're on cheap earbuds or have a hearing preference, slide it up or down. If you need to save the audio to share or use elsewhere, hit Download and you get a 16-bit PCM WAV file. Everything renders in your browser — no server, no upload.

How this translator works

Under the hood the translator uses the standard International Morse Code table published by the ITU (Recommendation M.1677-1). Every English letter, digit, and common punctuation mark maps to a unique dit-dah pattern. When you type text, the translator looks up each character, joins the patterns with a single-space letter gap and a slash for word breaks, and displays the result. When you paste Morse, it does the reverse — parses the pattern, matches each token to a letter, and reassembles the words.

The audio playback is generated with the Web Audio API — no downloads, no server. A dit is 60 ms of a 600 Hz sine tone at 15 WPM. A dah is three times longer. The gap between symbols inside a letter is one dit-length; between letters, three; between words, seven. This is the standard timing defined by the "PARIS" word convention that every trainer, contest, and radio uses.

Slide the speed control up and the character length shrinks proportionally. 5 WPM sounds slow enough that a beginner can consciously identify each letter. 25 WPM sounds fast enough that most self-taught learners freeze. Try both. The gap between them is roughly how much daily practice separates a curious beginner from a fluent CW operator.

What this translator does that most free tools skip

Plenty of free Morse translators exist. Where most fall short is what happens after the basic text-to-Morse conversion — WAV download, Farnsworth as first-class controls, adjustable tone, offline use, and staying out of your way with no ads or signups. Here is what we prioritise:

• Free with no ads and no signup. No email required, no rate limits, no per-user quota. Open the page and use it.
• WAV download. Render the audio as a 16-bit PCM WAV in your browser — no server upload, no signup wall.
• Farnsworth as two visible sliders. Character speed and text speed as independent controls on the main UI, not hidden in a menu. This is the way ARRL and every real trainer teaches it.
• Adjustable tone frequency. 400 to 1000 Hz so you can match your headphones or hearing preference. 600 Hz default matches the CW operator standard.
• Share via link. Copy a URL that reloads the same translation for someone else — no accounts, no databases.
• Runs offline once loaded. Everything is client-side JavaScript. Disconnect the internet and it keeps working.
• Full privacy. Text never leaves your browser. Web Analytics is cookieless and does not track individuals.

What a translator can and cannot do

Translators are useful for:

• Composing a Morse message on paper (a card, a gift, a tattoo design).
• Decoding a Morse phrase someone showed you.
• Hearing what a specific word sounds like at a specific speed.
• Verifying you sent the right pattern when you're just starting out.
• Fun — because typing your name in Morse and playing it back is delightful.

Translators are useless for:

• Learning to recognise Morse by ear. The tool is doing all the work.
• Copying real transmissions on the ham bands. Those play at speeds where you have to hear the pattern as a whole, not translate letter by letter.
• Building the auditory memory that makes CW fluent. That takes hundreds of drills at real speed, not one-off translations.

If your goal is more than a party trick, the translator is a starting point. The [Koch method](/learn/koch-method/) is where actual learning happens. Ten minutes a day, three weeks, and the alphabet is yours. [Our 21-day plan](/blog/learn-morse-code-in-10-minutes-a-day/) breaks it down day by day.

What is a prosign?

A prosign — short for "procedural signal" — is a Morse pattern that does not spell a letter. It stands for an operational instruction: end of message, over to you, paragraph break, distress. Real Morse operators use them constantly on the air. They are the "punctuation" of a CW conversation.

The key thing that makes a prosign different from a normal string of letters is the timing. A normal letter run has a 3-unit gap between each letter. A prosign has no letter gaps — all the dits and dahs run together as one shape. That is the whole point. It stops the ear from mishearing the shape as a sequence of letters.

The most famous prosign is <SOS>. Sent correctly, it is one nine-symbol shape:

· · · — — — · · ·

Sent wrong (as three separate letters S, O, S with normal spacing), it is technically not a distress signal at all under maritime law — it is just the letters S O S with three-unit gaps in between. Every Morse tutorial that teaches "SOS = three dots, three dashes, three dots" without mentioning the run-together timing is teaching the wrong thing.

How to use prosigns in this translator

Prosigns use angle-bracket syntax. Type them exactly like this, uppercase, wrapped in < and >:

• <SOS> — distress signal (do not send on real transmitters)
• <AR> — end of message ("over to you")
• <BT> — paragraph break inside a message
• <SK> — end of contact ("73, we are done")
• <KN> — named station only ("only the station I just called can reply")
• <VE> — understood ("got it, roger")
• <KA> — start of formal message
• <HH> — error correction (eight dits, "scratch that")

You can mix prosigns with normal text. For example: CQ CQ CQ DE MORSY <AR> — a general call ending with the "over" prosign. The <AR> renders as one run-together shape while the letters keep their normal 3-unit gaps.

The decoder also handles them. Paste an uninterrupted ...---... and the translator returns <SOS>, not SOS. The full history of why the prosign shape makes SOS unmistakable is in our SOS post.

Puzzle share — send someone a Morse challenge

A regular share link (the Share button) carries the plain text — the recipient opens the link and sees your translation with the text right there. That is fine when you just want to show someone what a phrase looks like in Morse.

The Puzzle button is for something different. It builds a share link that carries only the Morse pattern in the URL and never the plaintext. Anyone opening the link sees the Morse pattern loaded into the decoder, an empty answer field, and a "Reveal answer" button they can use if they give up. It is the right button for:

• Setting a Morse decoding challenge for a friend, sibling, or student
• Practising decoding with a study partner
• Escape-room and puzzle-designer use cases
• Scouts working on the Signalling merit badge — teachers can drop puzzle links in a class chat

How it works, step by step:

1. Type your message in the input box. Confirm the Morse output looks correct.
2. Press the Puzzle button next to Share. The button briefly shows "Puzzle ✓" and a confirmation strip appears — the link is already on your clipboard.
3. Paste the link into any message thread (WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, wherever).
4. The recipient opens the link. The main Morse box loads with your pattern and locks (so an accidental touch won't reveal the answer). Underneath, a separate "Your guess" field appears with Check and Reveal answer buttons. The URL only carries the Morse pattern, never your original text — peeking at the URL cannot spoil the puzzle.
5. The recipient can hit Play to hear the Morse audio, then type their guess into the guess field. Hitting Check compares their guess to the real answer (case-insensitive, ignores punctuation). Correct guesses light up green with a "nice copy" message; wrong guesses give an encouraging retry prompt with the attempt count.
6. If they give up, they press Reveal answer and the translator fills in the real message.

On your end nothing visible changes after you press Puzzle — you already know the answer. The whole puzzle experience runs in the recipient's browser.

How to format Morse code you paste in

The decoder accepts most common formats:

• ASCII (recommended): `.` for dit, `-` for dah. Example: ... --- ... for SOS.
• Unicode: `·` for dit, `—` for dah. Example: · · · — — — · · ·. Copy-paste from blog posts often uses these.
• Letter separator: a single space between letter patterns.
• Word separator: a forward slash / with a space on either side. Example: .... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -.. for "HELLO WORLD".

Bad input (unrecognised token, wrong spacing) is silently dropped rather than throwing an error. If your output looks wrong, check that letter patterns are separated by exactly one space and word breaks by a slash.

Common uses people find for this translator

Curiosity queries are the biggest — someone hears about Morse in a movie or a documentary and wants to know what a specific phrase sounds like. "SOS" is by far the most translated pattern; "I love you" (.. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-) is a distant second, driven by tattoo and jewellery ideas. Ham radio students use it as a quick sanity check while learning the alphabet — did I remember `Q` correctly? Play it back, verify. Scouts working on the Signalling merit badge use it for the reverse — what does --. --- --- -.. spell? (Answer: `GOOD`.)

A less obvious use: songwriters. Rush's YYZ was built around Toronto Pearson Airport's Morse ident. Kraftwerk used Morse timing in The Robots. Iron Maiden hid a Morse message in the opening of 2 Minutes to Midnight. Musicians drop by our translator every few weeks to design their own hidden patterns.

Why 600 Hz?

600 Hz is a compromise frequency — high enough to cut through radio noise and hearing loss in the low range, low enough not to fatigue the ear on long listening sessions. It has been the de facto CW tone since the 1930s. Higher tones (750-1000 Hz) work too and some operators prefer them for personal reasons. Lower tones (300-500 Hz) get muddy on cheap earbuds.

Every trainer, contest software, and real radio's CW filter is designed around this band. If you learn to recognise Morse at 600 Hz, you will recognise it at any frequency your radio can produce.

Privacy — what happens to your text

Nothing. The translator runs entirely in your browser as JavaScript. Text you type never leaves your device, is never sent to a server, and is not logged. Cloudflare Web Analytics (which counts pageviews on our site) is cookieless and does not track individual users. If you paste sensitive text, it stays on your screen.

FAQ

Is this Morse code translator free?

Yes — free, no ads, no signup, no rate limits.

Does the translator play Morse audio?

Yes. Type any text, press Play, hear the Morse pattern at your chosen WPM.

Does this Morse code translator have sound?

Yes — real audio playback in your browser. Type text, hit Play, and hear the Morse pattern as a clean 600 Hz sine tone rendered by the Web Audio API. No external players. Sound frequency is adjustable 400-1000 Hz to match your headphones or hearing preference.

Can I download the Morse audio as a WAV or MP3 file?

WAV download is built in — hit the Download button and you get a 16-bit PCM WAV file rendered at your current speed and tone settings. MP3 is not offered because WAV is lossless, has no licensing constraints, and every modern device plays it.

Can I decode Morse code back into English text?

Yes. Switch to Morse → Text mode, paste dits and dahs (either . - or · —), and the tool returns the decoded text.

Does the Morse translator work on iPhone and iPad?

Yes, in Safari, Chrome, and any WebKit browser on iOS. Audio needs an initial tap because of iOS autoplay rules — press Play once, then it works normally.

Does the translator work offline?

Yes, once the page has loaded. Translation and audio generation both run entirely in JavaScript in your browser. Disconnect the internet and it keeps working.

Will using a translator teach me Morse code?

No. Translators are for one-off conversions. Actual learning is the full-speed audio training pioneered by Ludwig Koch — daily audio drills at full speed. Roughly three weeks for the alphabet, and a further two months for reliable copy at 15 WPM. Our ten-minute-a-day beginner Morse plan walks you through it step by step.

What is the standard Morse code frequency?

600-750 Hz sine tone. Our translator defaults to 600 Hz and lets you adjust between 400 and 1000 Hz. Learn why 600 Hz is the CW standard.

Can I change the WPM speed?

Yes, from 5 to 30 WPM. 5-10 is beginner territory, 13-20 is conversational ham radio, 25-30 is contest speed. See our honest Morse learning timeline for what each speed sounds like in practice.

What is Farnsworth spacing?

Farnsworth timing keeps individual characters at full speed but widens the gaps between them, giving beginners more thinking room. Open Advanced settings and set Letter spacing lower than Speed. Standard practice is 15 WPM characters with 5-8 WPM effective text speed until the alphabet is fluent.

Does it support numbers and punctuation?

Yes. All 26 English letters, 10 digits, and common punctuation (period, comma, question mark, apostrophe, slash, parentheses, colon, semicolon, quote, dash, plus, equals, at-sign). Full ITU International Morse Code standard.

Does the Morse translator need a signup or account?

No. No signup, no email, no cookies for tracking, no rate limits, no per-user quota. Open the page and use it.

Is the text I translate private?

Yes. All translation and audio generation runs in your browser as JavaScript. Text never leaves your device, is never sent to any server, and is not logged anywhere. Cloudflare Web Analytics counts pageviews but is cookieless and does not track individual users.

Can I share a translation with a link?

Yes. Press the Share button and a link is copied to your clipboard. Anyone opening that link sees the same translation loaded automatically.

Does it support American Morse or non-English alphabets?

International Morse only (the modern global standard). Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, and Japanese wabun code have separate character sets — those are on the roadmap. Turkish special characters (ğ, ş, ç, ö, ü, ı) currently map to their closest Latin equivalent.