Word · Copy · Practice
Period (.) in Morse Code
Copy the Morse code for Period (.), hear it played back, or open it in the translator to edit it.
Letter by letter
How "Period (.)" is built in Morse
Period (.) is 1 character — 3 dots and 3 dashes in all. Here is each letter with its Morse code so you can send or write it one symbol at a time:
Sending Period (.) by sound or light
Period (.) is 17 Morse units long, counting a 1-unit gap inside each character. At a beginner's 5 words per minute that is 4.1 seconds of signal; an experienced operator at 25 WPM sends it in 0.8 seconds.
| Speed | 5 WPM | 13 WPM | 20 WPM | 25 WPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to send | 4.1 s | 1.6 s | 1.0 s | 0.8 s |
Easily confused with
One dot or dash separates Period (.) from each of these. They are the likeliest misreadings when copying by ear.
- + .-.-. one symbol dropped
What the standard says
Period (.) is part of International Morse code: Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1 lists .-.-.- under the name “Full stop (period)”. Any operator or decoder that follows the standard will read it correctly.
Compare every symbol on the punctuation chart.
How to read it
The format in one line
- Dot
- . one short signal (1 unit)
- Dash
- - one long signal (3 units)
- Letter gap
- a single space between letters (3 units)
- Word gap
- / with surrounding spaces (7 units)
Keep going