Common Morse Code Words and Phrases

Some words come up again and again — whether you're practicing, sending a message for fun, or getting into amateur radio. Here are the most common ones, with their exact Morse code.

Everyday words

Phrases people love to send

Remember that the slash ( / ) marks a space between words — so I LOVE YOU is three words, each separated by a slash.

Ham radio shorthand

Amateur radio operators use a compact set of abbreviations and number codes to keep exchanges short. A few you'll hear constantly:

Two famous number codes come from the old "92 Code" of telegraph shorthand:

• 73 means "best regards," a friendly sign-off.
• 88 means "love and kisses."

These are sent as the digits themselves — 73 is --... ...--.

For operating signals such as DE, K, AR, and SK, see the dedicated Morse code abbreviations and prosigns reference. It explains which groups use normal letter spacing and which are run together as a single procedural signal.

Names in Morse code

Names follow exactly the same A–Z mapping as other words. For example:

• ANNA → .- -. -. .-
• JAMES → .--- .- -- . ...
• EMMA → . -- -- .-

Capitalization does not change the result. Accents and writing systems outside the translator's supported International Morse set may need transliteration. Always keep a space between letters; joining every dot and dash together makes the boundaries ambiguous.

How to write phrases correctly

In plain-text Morse, use one space between encoded letters and a slash with spaces around it between words. Do not translate the slash as punctuation when you only mean a word break. Thus THANK YOU has a word separator after K:

- .... .- -. -.- / -.-- --- ..-

Audio uses silence rather than a visible slash: three dot units between letters and seven between words. The audio and timing guide explains those ratios and how words-per-minute speed is calculated.

Make your own

The fastest way to learn any word is to type it into the translator, read the pattern, and play it as audio. Every code in this list was generated by that same tool, so what you see here is exactly what you'll get. When you're ready to go deeper, the Learn Morse Code guide shows how to turn these from lookups into something you can send from memory.