Morse Code Encoder / Decoder

How to use 3 steps
  1. Type text or Morse code into the box.
  2. Press Encode to Morse or Decode to Text.
  3. Copy the result.
Morse Output

How this tool works

Text converts to Morse code and Morse code back to text. Letters are separated by spaces, and characters with no Morse equivalent are passed through unchanged.

Encoding uppercases the input and looks up each character in the standard International Morse table, joining the results with single spaces. Decoding splits on spaces and reverses the lookup. Because letters are separated by spaces and the table covers letters, digits and common punctuation, a symbol with no entry appears in the output as itself rather than being dropped — which makes an unsupported character visible instead of silently lost. Word separation is the known limitation: proper Morse uses a longer gap between words, and a single space here always means a letter boundary.

Reading the output

  • Word gaps are not represented: real Morse separates words with a gap three times longer than the letter gap, usually written as a slash. Encoding here produces letter gaps only, so word boundaries are lost.
  • Case is discarded: Morse has no capitals. Text is uppercased before encoding and comes back uppercase after decoding.
  • Unsupported characters pass straight through: a character with no Morse equivalent appears unchanged in the output, which makes it obvious rather than hiding the gap.
  • Timing is what makes Morse audible: a dash is three times the length of a dot, and the gaps carry as much meaning as the marks. Written dots and dashes are only half the code.

What is actually lost in the conversion

The [msm_tool slug="morse-converter"] separates every letter with a single space, which is genuinely how the letter gap works — but real Morse also separates words with a gap three times longer than that, conventionally written as a slash, and this output does not distinguish the two. Word boundaries are lost in the encoded result and need to be reinserted by hand wherever they matter.

Case is discarded because Morse has none

Text is uppercased before encoding and comes back uppercase after decoding, not as a stylistic choice but because Morse code itself has no concept of capital versus lowercase letters — the case information genuinely is not present in the dots and dashes, so there is nothing for decoding to recover.

Unsupported characters stay visible rather than vanishing

A character with no entry in the standard International Morse table passes straight through into the output unchanged, rather than being silently dropped. That choice makes an unsupported character obvious at a glance in the result, instead of leaving a gap that looks like it could be anything.

Written dots and dashes are only half the actual code

Morse is fundamentally a timing system: a dash is three times the length of a dot, and the gaps between elements carry as much meaning as the marks themselves do. A written transcription in dots and dashes captures the symbols but not the rhythm, which is the part that actually makes Morse audible and transmittable in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Specific to the Morse Code Encoder / Decoder. Broader questions about this category are answered on the category page.

Three dots, three dashes, three dots. It was chosen because the pattern is unmistakable and easy to send under pressure, not because the letters stand for anything — the popular expansions were invented afterwards.
Encoding here uses a single space between every character, which is the letter gap. The word gap is a longer pause that this output does not distinguish, so you will need to reinsert word boundaries by hand.
Yes, for the standard International Morse set — digits and common punctuation are included. Anything outside that set is passed through unchanged so you can see what was not converted.
Morse encodes letters without case, so the information is not there to recover. Uppercase is the conventional way to write decoded Morse.
No. The lookup table is part of the page and the conversion runs in your browser.

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