NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Spell any word, name, or code as NATO phonetic code words — Alfa, Bravo, Charlie.
A slash (/) marks a space between words.
The NATO phonetic alphabet assigns a distinct code word to each letter — A is Alfa, B is Bravo, C is Charlie — so “SOS” becomes “Sierra Oscar Sierra”. It exists to spell names, codes, and call signs clearly over noisy radio and phone lines, where similar-sounding letters like B, P, and V are easily confused.
What the NATO alphabet is
The NATO phonetic alphabet — formally the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — pairs each of the 26 Latin letters with a code word chosen to sound clearly different from every other. Instead of saying “B”, which can be misheard as “D”, “P”, “T”, or “V”, you say “Bravo”. The type-in tool above converts your text into these code words instantly.
Why spelling out letters helps
Over a phone line, a crackly radio, or a noisy room, single letters carry very little sound and are easy to confuse. Whole words carry far more acoustic information, so listeners recover them correctly even through interference. That is why airlines, the military, emergency services, and call-centre staff read out reference numbers, names, and postcodes letter by letter using code words.
- 1 Take one character at a time Read your word left to right, handling each letter or digit on its own — for “SOS”, that is S, then O, then S.
- 2 Swap each letter for its code word Use the chart below: S is Sierra, O is Oscar. Case does not matter — “s” and “S” both become Sierra.
- 3 Speak digits as their number word Numbers are said in full — 1 is One, 9 is Nine (often spoken “Niner” on the radio). So “A1” is “Alfa One”.
- 4 Say the words with a short pause between each String them together evenly: “Sierra — Oscar — Sierra.” Mark a gap between separate words if you are spelling a phrase.
Full NATO phonetic alphabet
The official ITU/ICAO code word and pronunciation for every letter A–Z.
| Letter | Code word | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| A | Alfa | AL-fah |
| B | Bravo | BRAH-voh |
| C | Charlie | CHAR-lee |
| D | Delta | DELL-tah |
| E | Echo | ECK-oh |
| F | Foxtrot | FOKS-trot |
| G | Golf | GOLF |
| H | Hotel | hoh-TELL |
| I | India | IN-dee-ah |
| J | Juliett | JEW-lee-ett |
| K | Kilo | KEY-loh |
| L | Lima | LEE-mah |
| M | Mike | MIKE |
| N | November | no-VEM-ber |
| O | Oscar | OSS-cah |
| P | Papa | pah-PAH |
| Q | Quebec | keh-BECK |
| R | Romeo | ROW-me-oh |
| S | Sierra | see-AIR-rah |
| T | Tango | TANG-go |
| U | Uniform | YOU-nee-form |
| V | Victor | VIK-tah |
| W | Whiskey | WISS-key |
| X | X-ray | ECKS-ray |
| Y | Yankee | YANG-key |
| Z | Zulu | ZOO-loo |
Where it is used
Pilots and air-traffic controllers use it for call signs and clearances; the military uses it for grid references and orders; police, ambulance, and coastguard radio operators use it for names and vehicle plates. Note the spellings that guard against non-English ears: “Alfa” and “Juliett” carry an extra letter so speakers of other languages do not drop a sound. On the radio the digit 9 is often spoken “Niner” to keep it distinct from the German “nein” and from a garbled “five”.