Decode · Auto-detect · Audio
Morse code decoder
Paste dots, dashes, and slashes — get plain text instantly. Runs in your browser, no upload, no account. Need to encode the other direction? Use the translator.
Listen with your microphone
Tap Start listening, then play or send Morse near your mic. We detect tones, time their length, and decode them in real time. Works best with a clean 500–800 Hz tone at 15–25 WPM.
Microphone access is requested only when you press Start. Audio never leaves your device.
Examples
Common patterns
Click any row to decode it instantly.
How decoding works
The format in one line
- Dot
- . short signal (1 unit)
- Dash
- - long signal (3 units)
- Letter gap
- a single space between letters (3 units)
- Word gap
- / with surrounding spaces (7 units)
The decoder also accepts middle-dot (·), bullet (•), en-dash (–), em-dash (—), and pipe (|) as separators.
Pattern lookup
What does this pattern mean?
The patterns people look up most, and the two that mean more than one thing.
| Pattern | Means | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| .-.-.- | Period ( . ) | The single most-looked-up pattern. Six symbols, strictly alternating dot-dash. |
| --..-- | Comma ( , ) | |
| ..--.. | Question mark ( ? ) | |
| .----. | Apostrophe ( ' ) | |
| -....- | Hyphen ( - ) | |
| -..-. | Slash ( / ) | |
| .-.-. | Plus ( + ) — or the prosign AR | Same symbols, two readings. As punctuation it's a plus sign; between operators it means "end of message". |
| -...- | Equals ( = ) — or the prosign BT | As punctuation it's an equals sign; inside a message it marks a paragraph break. |
| ...---... | SOS | Written closed up because it's sent as one unbroken string with no letter gaps. That's what makes it a distress signal rather than the three letters S O S. |
Full sets: punctuation in Morse code and the prosign reference.
Typed the way people type it
Dots with spaces, underscores for dashes
Patterns copied into a search box rarely look like textbook Morse. A space between every dot usually means the writer was separating the signals, not the letters, and an underscore is often standing in for a dash. Here is what the most-searched forms say both ways:
| Typed as | If the spaces are letter gaps | Written as one character |
|---|---|---|
| . . . . - | EEEET (5 separate characters) | ....- = 4 |
| .. .. | II (2 separate characters) | .... = H |
| ._. | No spaces, so no letter gaps | .-. = R — the underscore is a dash |
| . . . - - - . . . | EEETTTEEE (9 separate characters) | ...---... = SOS |
| .-.-.- | No spaces, so no letter gaps | .-.-.- = . |
When in doubt, the joined reading is usually the intended one: people add spaces between dots to make them easier to count. Paste either form into the decoder above to hear and check it.
Complete reference
Every Morse pattern, by length
56 characters, dots before dashes within each length.
Counting the dots and dashes is the fastest way to narrow a pattern down. Each length can hold twice as many patterns as the one before it, but International Morse leaves most of the longer ones unused:
4 signals · 12 of 16 possible
5 signals · 17 of 32 possible
6 signals · 12 of 64 possible
7 signals · 1 of 128 possible
- ...-..- $
Patterns that aren't a character
A few patterns decode to nothing in the character table because they are procedural signals: two or three letters run together into one shape. If a pattern here fails to decode as letters, it is probably one of these.
The usual trap
Why spacing changes the answer
Most Morse that gets copied off a bracelet, a tattoo or a film still decodes wrong, and it is almost always spacing rather than the dots themselves. The same four dots are one letter or four letters depending entirely on the gaps:
| Written | Reads as | Why |
|---|---|---|
| .... | H | Four dots, no gaps — a single letter. |
| .. .. | I I | One letter gap in the middle, so it's two letters. |
| . . . . | E E E E | A gap after every dot — four separate letters. |
This is why jewellery and tattoo designs are so often ambiguous: engraved dots rarely preserve the 3-unit letter gap, so a design meant to read as one word can decode as several. If a pattern above looks wrong, try pasting it with different spacing — the decoder will show you each reading.
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