Apostrophe (') in Morse Code
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Six symbols in total: · — — — — · . That is as long as Morse punctuation gets, and the apostrophe has plenty of company at that length — the period, comma, question mark, hyphen, at sign, quotation mark and exclamation mark all run to six as well. What sets it apart is its shape rather than its size: a single dot at each end with four unbroken dashes between them, the longest uninterrupted run of dashes anywhere in the punctuation set.
The Digit 1, Plus One More Symbol
The first five symbols of the apostrophe are exactly the digit 1's code, dot-dash-dash-dash-dash, with a single closing dot added on afterward. It's a useful memory shortcut: anyone who already knows how to send 1 only has one extra symbol to add to reach the apostrophe.
A Genuinely Rare Character to Send
Because the apostrophe rarely appears in formal or procedural Morse traffic — most operating conventions favor spelling contractions out in full rather than using punctuation — its length has never posed much of a practical burden in real use, despite being one of the longest codes in the whole set.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the apostrophe get such a long code compared with an ordinary letter?
Punctuation marks generally run longer than letters by design, so they can't be mistaken for a spelled word mid-message — and the apostrophe specifically inherited its length by extension from the digit 1's already-long five-symbol code, plus one more.
Does the apostrophe borrow its code from somewhere else?
Yes — its first five symbols are exactly the digit 1's code, with one extra dot added at the end.