Morse Code Chart

Use the chart as a reference you can also hear

The chart displays the characters supported by the converter and their dot-and-dash patterns. Filters show all entries, letters, numbers or punctuation. The letters filter includes É as well as A-Z; the numbers filter shows 0-9. Selecting a displayed character plays its pattern using the current sound settings. The buttons play individual examples; clicking a sequence of entries does not compose or save a message.

A new click stops the previous signal. This is useful when you intentionally change the example, but it also means rapid clicks are a poor way to hear a word. Use text to Morse or the audio page for a complete phrase with correct letter and word gaps. The chart's text download contains the displayed mapping, not a sound file or a record of which entries you clicked.

For lookup, locate the exact symbol rather than a vaguely similar group. For learning, compare its shape with one other character and then use it in context. If a code has been copied from another alphabet or historical reference, the same marks may have different labels; the chart is a statement of this tool's mapping, not a promise to interpret every national or historical Morse system.

Short patterns teach duration and order

E is one dot and T one dash. I is two dots and M two dashes. Their small size makes them useful first comparisons, but short does not automatically mean easy in a flowing message: you still need to hear where the character ends. A dot lasting one unit and a dash lasting three use the same pitch. ITU-R M.1677-1 specifies one-unit inner gaps, three-unit letter gaps and seven-unit word gaps at normal spacing.

A .- and N -. contain the same number of dots and dashes. At 20 WPM both last five dot units, or 0.30 seconds, but the long part occurs in a different position. U ..- and D -.. both contain two dots and one dash. F ..-. and L .-.. both contain three dots and a dash. In each pair, counting marks or measuring total duration alone is insufficient: their order is the distinguishing information.

Play a pair slowly enough to identify the difference, then test it in a short unfamiliar combination. A fixed example such as A N is a comparison, not a prediction of a random quiz question. If you find yourself visually reciting dots and dashes while audio plays, listen once with your eyes away from the chart and check afterward. The chart remains a verification aid rather than a required intermediate step for every received letter.

Digits form a useful progression, not a licence to abbreviate

Every digit displayed has five marks. From 1 through 5, the leading dots increase: 1 is .----, 2 ..---, 3 ...--, 4 ....- and 5 ...... From 6 through 0, leading dashes increase: 6 -...., 7 --..., 8 ---.., 9 ----. and 0 -----. The numbers table makes that progression easy to inspect without confusing a pattern's final dot with sentence punctuation.

Use the numbers filter to hear 1 and 9, then 2 and 8. These have opposite dot/dash placement, but that symmetry is not a substitute for hearing the whole sequence. A clipped final mark can turn a reference comparison into an incomplete signal. Let each chart playback finish and keep pitch and speed constant so the only change is the digit.

For dates and mixed identifiers, use the generator after lookup. AB9 is one text group; AB 9 contains a word break. The chart cannot infer the correct form of a call sign, date or coordinate, and it does not provide an operational abbreviated-digit mode. Write the exact intended characters, then compare the decoded result. Digits are often longer to send than short letters, so a numeric exercise may need more listening time than its written length suggests.

Read punctuation, asterisks and shared patterns carefully

Unmarked punctuation follows the corresponding table in ITU-R M.1677-1. A full stop is .-.-.-, comma --..--, question mark ..--.., slash -..-. and commercial at .--.-.. The quotation-mark group is .-..-., distinct from the apostrophe .----.. These are patterns for characters, not typographic spacing instructions. In a Morse message, a printed / between groups is a word-divider convention rather than the transmitted slash pattern.

Five entries are marked as extensions: !, &, ;, _ and $. Their presence means this converter accepts those patterns; it does not mean they are punctuation entries in ITU-R M.1677-1. If a puzzle will be solved with a different reference, either supply this chart or choose unambiguous supported standard punctuation. Asterisks also appear in the text export alongside the additional entries and in its explanatory note.

Some marks have more than one reading. Multiplication × and X share -..-, so the decoder returns X. The + pattern .-.-. can be rendered as <AR> when prosign preference is enabled, and the additional & pattern .-... can be rendered as <AS>. A chart label is not a conclusion about the sender's meaning. Preserve context and consult the decoder's interpretation option when the source contains procedural signals.

A supported chart is not the whole operating manual

É has its own ..-.. pattern here, including composed or decomposed accented input in the generator. Other accented letters and Cyrillic are not automatically mapped or transliterated. When a learner sees a foreign-language page, distinguish the language of the explanation from the alphabet being encoded. The same supported identifiers and mark patterns stay unchanged across the eight page languages.

The chart lists ordinary mapped characters. The converter separately accepts <AR>, <AS>, <SK> and <SOS> as joined tokens; they are not a dedicated set of chart buttons. Ordinary AR and joined <AR> sound different because ordinary letters have an inter-letter gap. The ITU document also includes procedure signals such as eight dots for error that are not implemented as tokens here. This is a useful compatibility boundary, not evidence that those signals do not exist.

ITU-R M.1677-1 also explains special treatment of percentages, fractions and minute/second signs. This chart does not expand % or format a numerical message according to all those rules. For an engineering or history lesson, examine the relevant document passage alongside the mapping. For a simple date design, choose the intended written characters yourself and verify them through the generator and decoder.

Turn lookup into a small, testable learning loop

Choose a few patterns rather than trying to learn all entries at once. E, T, I, M, A and N allow several concrete comparisons: one mark versus two, dot versus dash, and reversed order. Listen to an entry, identify it, then make a short word with the generator. Finally try a different arrangement without watching the chart. Return to the chart for the pair that caused difficulty, not for every letter you already recognize.

An 18 WPM character setting with 10 WPM Farnsworth spacing can be a useful starting experiment for words. A chart entry contains only one character, so reducing Farnsworth alone does not lengthen that isolated pattern: there is no following letter or word gap inside its playback. To compare spacing, use two characters on the audio page. This prevents a common misunderstanding in which a learner repeatedly adjusts spacing while expecting a single A button to sound slower.

Keep a brief note of specific uncertainties, such as A/N order or S/H mark count. Revisit those before trying a longer phrase. Change one setting at a time, keep volume comfortable and stop if repeated listening becomes tiring. Quiz and practice provide further prompts, but the chart itself stores no learning progress and makes no assessment of proficiency. Learning advice here is a practical experiment, not a promise about a fixed number of sessions.

What do charts preserve, and what did historical operators supply?

The Library of Congress's 1844 message tape preserves a physical record of Morse's 1844 message to Vail. A reference chart connects marks with characters, but the original event involved apparatus, timing and an operator's interpretation. Later sounders such as the Smithsonian's telegraph sounder converted electrical pulses into clicks. Hearing an entry here connects written and audible representations, but the generated tone is not a reproduction of every historical receiver or alphabet.

ITU’s account of the 1865 conference describes international coordination in 1865, when countries agreed on service rules, tariffs and Morse equipment. That is meaningful context for a chart: an alphabet only works between people who also agree how to send, divide and interpret a message. The same principle applies when supplying a worksheet to a class. State the separator convention and the status of extension entries rather than assuming every printed chart is identical.

Earlier maritime examples show why lookup was not the final task. The 1909 Congressional Record on Jack Binns records contemporary recognition of Binns's CQD calls in 1909, while the Science Museum's account of Titanic wireless discusses received distress messages in 1912. A chart can identify a pattern, but the exchange depended on attentive operators and contextual information. Use those cases to ask what a receiver still needed after recognizing the signal, instead of treating a famous label as proof of communication.

Frequently asked questions