Common Words and Phrases in Morse Code

Every code below is generated by the same Morse code translator this site runs on, so what you copy from this page is exactly what the tool produces. To look a single letter up instead, the Morse code alphabet chart has all 26.

Read each one left to right. A dot is the short signal, a dash the long one, a space separates letters, and a slash separates whole words.

How to say hello and hi in Morse code

Hello is the longest of the greetings at five letters, and it contains a repeat: the two Ls in the middle are the same four symbols twice over.

Hi is the one worth practising first. H is four dots and I is two, so the whole word is six dots in a row with a single gap in the middle.

That gap is the entire message. Send the six dots evenly spaced and the word stops being hi: a receiver hears H, then I, only because you paused between them.

Good morning and good night are two words each, so they take a longer gap, shown here as a slash. In sound, that gap is about seven dot-lengths.

Help and SOS in Morse code

SOS is the one people actually send. It is written as three letters, but it is not sent as three: the nine symbols run together as one unbroken signal, with no letter gaps inside it.

That is why SOS is unmistakable. Sent properly it has a rhythm nothing else in Morse shares, and it stays recognisable through noise, a weak signal or an untrained hand.

The story of how it came to be the distress signal is a separate one, told in what Morse code is and where it came from.

Plain help is a normal word with normal letter gaps. It is longer to send and easier to lose in noise, which is the practical case for learning SOS instead.

Yes and no in Morse code

Yes and no are both short. No is five symbols in total, N being dash dot and O three dashes, which makes it one of the quickest words to send in English.

Operators rarely spell either of them out. On the air, a single R, dot dash dot, does the job of yes: it is short for received, and it confirms the message arrived intact.

There is no code for a question mark tone or a shrug, so a conversation in Morse gets blunt quickly. That is a feature when you are paying by the second.

Love, thank you and other everyday words

These are the words people look up most after the greetings, usually to write one word down rather than to send a whole message.

Looking for I love you specifically? It has its own guide, with the full three-word sequence and where the gaps fall: I love you in Morse code.

Notice how much length varies. Mom is seven symbols and thank you is twenty two, because Morse gives the shortest codes to the letters English uses most.

Family names are longer than they look for the same reason. Sister is thirteen symbols and brother is nineteen, so the second takes noticeably longer to send than the first.

Words Morse code shortens instead of spelling

Operators who use Morse daily almost never spell a common phrase out. They send a short abbreviation everyone on the band already knows.

• CQ (-.-. --.-) is a general call, roughly "is anyone out there".
• 73 (--... ...--) means best regards, and ends most friendly contacts.
• 88 (---.. ---..) means love and kisses, and is the closest thing Morse has to a stock affectionate sign-off.
• SK (... -.-) marks the end of a contact, with nothing more to follow.

None of these are separate codes. They are ordinary letters and digits from the same table, given an agreed meaning by the people using them.

That is the practical lesson of this whole page. Morse encodes characters, not words, so any shortcut you see is a convention among operators rather than something built into the code.

How long each phrase takes to send

Length in symbols is a fair guide to how long a phrase takes, because dot length sets everything else: a dash is three dots long, the gap between letters is three, and the gap between words is seven.

Speed is usually given in words per minute, and the dot length that goes with it is 1200 divided by that number in milliseconds. At 20 words per minute, a dot is 60 milliseconds.

So hi, at six dots and one letter gap, takes well under a second at that speed. Thank you, at twenty two symbols across two words, takes several times longer.

You can hear the difference rather than count it. The translator on the home page will play any phrase on this page aloud as beeps.

Copy the whole list

Every phrase on this page as plain text, one per line, ready to paste into a note or a message.

HELLO  .... . .-.. .-.. ---
HI  .... ..
HEY  .... . -.--
GOOD MORNING  --. --- --- -.. / -- --- .-. -. .. -. --.
GOOD NIGHT  --. --- --- -.. / -. .. --. .... -
HELP  .... . .-.. .--.
HELP ME  .... . .-.. .--. / -- .
SOS  ... --- ...
YES  -.-- . ...
NO  -. ---
OK  --- -.-
LOVE  .-.. --- ...- .
THANK YOU  - .... .- -. -.- / -.-- --- ..-
PLEASE  .--. .-.. . .- ... .
SORRY  ... --- .-. .-. -.--
GOODBYE  --. --- --- -.. -... -.-- .
FAMILY  ..-. .- -- .. .-.. -.--
MOM  -- --- --
DAD  -.. .- -..
SISTER  ... .. ... - . .-.
BROTHER  -... .-. --- - .... . .-.
FRIEND  ..-. .-. .. . -. -..
FAITH  ..-. .- .. - ....
HOPE  .... --- .--. .
SAD  ... .- -..

To convert a word that is not listed here, type it into the Morse code translator on the home page. For single letters, the Morse code alphabet chart has all 26 with a linkable row for each one.

Questions people ask about Morse code phrases

What is SOS in Morse code?

SOS is ... --- ..., sent as one continuous signal rather than as three separate letters. It is the international distress call and the single most recognisable pattern in Morse code.

How do you say hello in Morse code?

Hello is .... . .-.. .-.. ---. Each group of symbols is one letter, and the spaces between the groups are what keep the five letters apart.

Is there a single Morse code for a whole word?

No. Morse code has a code for each letter, digit and punctuation mark, and nothing above that level. Every word is spelled out, which is why operators lean on short abbreviations like 73 and CQ.

Does Morse code have a code for emojis or slang?

No. The table covers A to Z, 0 to 9 and eighteen punctuation marks and symbols. Anything outside that set has no Morse equivalent and is simply left out when you convert text.