Morse Code Alphabet: the Complete Chart

This chart is the complete morse code alphabet as standardized by the ITU: the 26 letters from A to Z, the ten digits, and the punctuation marks you will actually meet in real messages. Every row has a copy button on the code, and the filter box above the table finds a character instantly.

Morse code writes each character as a short sequence of dits (dots) and dahs (dashes). The design is clever: the most frequent English letters got the shortest codes. E, the most common letter of all, is a single dot. T is a single dash. Compare that to Q, --.-, or the digit 0 with its five dashes. Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail counted the letters in a printer's type cases to decide, and that 1830s frequency analysis still saves keystrokes today.

A few landmarks help you get oriented. SOS, the universal distress signal, is ... --- ...: three dits, three dahs, three dits, sent as one continuous pattern. The digits follow a beautiful system of their own: 1 is .----, 2 is ..---, and each number up to 5 adds a dot; from 6 to 0 the dashes take over. Once you see it, you never need to memorize the numbers again.

Reading conventions are simple. A space separates letters, a slash separates words, and case does not exist: A and a share the code .-. Timing matters more than symbols when the code is sounded out: a dah lasts three dits, letters are separated by three dits of silence, words by seven.

To practice, pick a short word, look up each letter here, then check yourself with the morse code translator: it converts both directions automatically and can play your message as 600 Hz beeps at roughly 20 words per minute.