Morse code is a method of transmitting
text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. The International Morse Code encodes the
ISO basic Latin alphabet, some extra Latin letters, the
Arabic numerals and a small set of punctuation and procedural signals (
prosigns) as standardized sequences of short and long signals called "dots" and "dashes", or "dits" and "dahs", as in
amateur radio practice. Because many non-English natural languages use more than the 26 Roman letters, extensions to the Morse alphabet exist for those languages.