Morse Code Alphabet

The Morse code alphabet gives each of the 26 English letters its own pattern of dots and dashes. The table below is the full International Morse set, the same one the translator uses.

The full A to Z table

Read each row from left to right. A dot is one short signal and a dash is three times as long, so a letter with more dashes takes longer to send.

The table shows the marks only. On the air, letters are separated by a gap three units long and words by seven units. Without those gaps, two letters can run into one pattern.

Why some letters are shorter

E is a single dot and T is a single dash. Letters that appear most often in English got the shortest patterns, which kept messages quick to send. Morse and Vail are said to have counted movable type in a print shop to rank the letters, and the order still shows in the table.

Some patterns mirror each other. A is .- and N is -.; B is -... and D is -..; S is ... and V is ...-. The two members of a pair sound close at speed, so learn them together.

Letters that get confused

Four groups cause most reading errors:

• E (.), I (..) and S (...): a run of dots, one mark longer each time.
• T (-), M (--) and O (---): the same run on the dash side.
• A (.-) and N (-.): two marks in opposite order.
• U (..-) and D (-..): three marks that change places.

Drill each group as a set instead of one letter at a time. If you can tell S from H (....) without counting, you are hearing the shape rather than the marks.

How the alphabet sounds

At 20 words per minute a dot lasts 60 milliseconds and a dash 180. That is too fast to count, so the aim is to hear each letter as one sound: E is a single beep, S three short ones, O three long ones. Reading the table is a starting point, not the end state.

The drill on this page plays one letter at 18 WPM. Press the key, choose the letter you heard, and the dots and dashes appear under the answer.

Letters, numbers and punctuation

The alphabet stops at Z. Morse code numbers use five marks each, and the full Morse code chart adds punctuation and prosigns. To encode a word right now, the Morse code translator does it as you type.

Learn the alphabet in order of use

Start with E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H and R, which carry a large share of ordinary English. Add one letter at a time, copy short words, and keep the character speed at 15 to 20 WPM. The practice plan on how to learn Morse code explains why slow characters make learning harder, not easier.

Frequently asked questions