# Telegraph in Morse code

**Telegraph in Morse code is "- . .-.. . --. .-. .- .--. ....". It is 9 characters made of 15 dots and 8 dashes, and takes about 4.6 seconds to send at 20 words per minute.**

*By Can Türk (https://iamcanturk.dev), MorseForge.*

*Source: https://morse.iamcanturk.dev/words/telegraph/*

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## What it means

Nine letters, and one of the longest words worth practising as a single unit. The telegraph is why the code exists at all: a single wire could carry only on and off, so the alphabet had to be encoded in the length of those two states rather than in their shape.

## Letter by letter

| Character | Code | Spoken |
| --- | --- | --- |
| T | `-` | dah |
| E | `.` | dit |
| L | `.-..` | di-dah-di-dit |
| E | `.` | dit |
| G | `--.` | dah-dah-dit |
| R | `.-.` | di-dah-dit |
| A | `.-` | di-dah |
| P | `.--.` | di-dah-dah-dit |
| H | `....` | di-di-di-dit |

A space separates letters and a slash separates words.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is Telegraph in Morse code?

Telegraph in Morse code is "- . .-.. . --. .-. .- .--. ....". Nine letters, and one of the longest words worth practising as a single unit. The telegraph is why the code exists at all: a single wire could carry only on and off, so the alphabet had to be encoded in the length of those two states rather than in their shape.

### How long does it take to send Telegraph in Morse code?

At 20 words per minute, Telegraph takes about 4.6 seconds to send. That counts its 15 dots and 8 dashes plus the silences between them, timed by the PARIS standard, in which one unit, the length of a dot, is 60 milliseconds at that speed.

## Related words: History

- [Morse](https://morse.iamcanturk.dev/words/morse/)
- [Titanic](https://morse.iamcanturk.dev/words/titanic/)

## More

- [Every word in Morse code](https://morse.iamcanturk.dev/words/)
- [The Morse code alphabet](https://morse.iamcanturk.dev/morse-code-alphabet/)
- [Translate your own text](https://morse.iamcanturk.dev/morse-code-translator/)