Morse code alphabet: chart, timing and how to learn it

Published October 5, 2026 by the Wordformat team

Morse code turns each letter into a short pattern of two signals: a short one, the dot or “dit”, and a long one, the dash or “dah”. It was designed for the electric telegraph in the 1830s and 1840s, and it is still used today by amateur radio operators, pilots identifying radio beacons, and anyone who needs a signal that works with nothing more than a flashlight or a tapping finger.

The alphabet and numbers

This is International Morse Code, the standard maintained by the International Telecommunication Union. Dots are written as periods and dashes as hyphens.

Notice that the most common English letters have the shortest codes: E is a single dot and T a single dash. Morse and his partner Alfred Vail reportedly estimated letter frequencies by counting the type in a printer’s cases, so the code is quick to send for ordinary text. Numbers follow a regular pattern of five signals each, which makes them easy to learn as a group.

Timing: the part most charts leave out

Morse code is a rhythm, not just a set of symbols. Everything is measured in units:

• A dot is 1 unit long, and a dash is 3 units.
• The gap between dots and dashes inside a letter is 1 unit.
• The gap between letters is 3 units.
• The gap between words is 7 units.

Speed is given in words per minute (WPM), using the word “PARIS”, which takes exactly 50 units including the gap after it. At 20 WPM a unit lasts 60 milliseconds; in general a dot lasts 1200 ÷ WPM milliseconds. That’s the timing Wordformat’s Morse code translator uses when it plays your message.

When you write Morse down, a space separates letters and a slash separates words: “Hi there” is .... .. / - .... . .-. ..

What SOS really is

SOS is ... --- ..., but it isn’t really three letters. It is sent as one continuous pattern, without the usual gaps between letters, which makes it impossible to mistake for anything else. It was adopted as the international distress signal at a radio conference in Berlin in 1906 because it is so easy to send and recognize. The popular readings “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” came later.

How to learn Morse code

1. Learn by sound, not by sight. Experienced operators hear “dah-di-dah-dit” as the letter C in the same way you recognize a spoken word. If you memorize “dash dot dash dot” and translate it in your head, you will hit a speed ceiling of a few words per minute.
2. Use full-speed characters. Play letters at 15 to 20 WPM even when you’re a beginner. Slow characters sound completely different and have to be relearned later. If you need more time, leave longer gaps between letters instead (this is called Farnsworth timing).
3. Add letters gradually. The Koch method starts with just two letters at full speed. When you can copy them with about 90% accuracy, add a third, and so on until you know them all.
4. Practice little and often. Ten or fifteen minutes a day works better than an hour once a week.

To practice, type a few words into the translator, press Play, and write down what you hear before looking at the screen.

Is Morse code still used?

Ships stopped relying on Morse for distress calls in 1999, when satellite-based systems took over, and the US Federal Communications Commission dropped the Morse requirement for amateur radio licenses in 2007. Even so, Morse remains popular with radio hobbyists because a simple, low-power Morse signal can be understood when voice would be lost in noise. Aviation radio beacons still identify themselves in Morse, and it has been used as an accessibility input method by people who can make only one or two kinds of movement.