Morse code decoder
Paste the dots and dashes, read the words. And if what you have is a sound, the notes below turn beeps into symbols you can paste.
Guide
How to use it
- Paste the Morse with spaces between letters and / between words: .... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -..
- The text appears live, unknown groups show as • with the offending code listed, usually a missing space.
- Decoding from audio? Short beep = dot, long beep (three times as long) = dash, short gap = next letter, long gap = next word. Write it down, then paste.
- Check your transcription by playing your pasted Morse back with the sound button, it should sound like what you heard.
Examples
Decoding practice
"HELP ME", the classic puzzle-box message. Note the / carrying the word gap, without it the decoder sees one eight-letter word.
Copied Morse often arrives with en-dashes or minus signs instead of hyphens. This decoder accepts . and - only, replace exotic dashes with plain hyphens first (paste into the case converter and copy back if needed).
".......-..-..---" cannot be decoded uniquely, Morse without letter gaps is ambiguous by design. The gaps are part of the code, if a puzzle omits them, the puzzle wants you to try groupings.
Method
How it works
Each whitespace-separated group looks up against the International Morse table, slashes and pipes mark word boundaries. Unknown groups render as • and are listed, transposed dots and missing spaces announce themselves instead of silently corrupting the message.
The ambiguity note is real and mathematical: without letter separators, "EEET" and "SV" and many others share dot-dash sequences. Any decoder that claims to fix missing spaces is guessing.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why does my decoded text contain • marks?
Those groups matched no Morse character, usually two letters run together. Find the listed code, split it with a space and the • resolves.
Can it decode audio recordings directly?
No, and honestly: reliable audio decoding needs signal processing beyond a static page. The manual method above (short = dot, long = dash) works surprisingly fast with the playback button as your checker.
What separates words in written Morse?
A slash (/) by strong convention, this tool also accepts |. Just spaces between letters, seven-unit silence on air.
Is Morse case-sensitive?
No, Morse has no case. Decoded text arrives in capitals by tradition.
What about numbers and punctuation?
Digits are five-symbol codes (1 is .----, 5 is .....) and common punctuation is covered, the chart page lists everything this decoder knows.
My puzzle Morse uses 0 and 1, what now?
Substitute: 0 for dot, 1 for dash (or as the puzzle hints), translate to . and -, and paste. Binary-looking Morse is a favourite puzzle disguise.
More tools