About this phrase
“Like Mother, Like Daughter” celebrates matrilineal inheritance — the specific pride of a mother seeing herself continued in her daughter. In morse it's the longest of the four ‘like’ proverb phrases, ideal for a wide cuff.
Cultural context
The female-line version of the 'like parent, like child' proverb carries distinct cultural weight: in many traditions, the mother-daughter bond is the primary site of cultural transmission — cooking traditions, healing knowledge, naming conventions, and emotional intelligence are passed through maternal lines. The phrase appears in Ezekiel 16:44 ('as is the mother, so is her daughter') and across folk traditions. In contemporary culture it's reclaimed as a celebration of matrilineage against a history that often devalued women's lines of descent. The longer form including 'daughter' gives the phrase more emotional space than its son counterpart.
When to gift this phrase
Matched pieces for mother and daughter, especially at milestones when the resemblance becomes pronounced: graduation, marriage, first child, significant birthdays. Also wonderful as a three-generation gift including grandmother.
When this phrase is the wrong fit
Avoid when the mother-daughter relationship is complicated by the daughter's need to establish her own identity separately from her mother.
Variations you might prefer
- mother and daughter
- matrilineal bond
- cut from the same cloth
How the morse encodes
'LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER' is twenty-two letters — one of the longer morse phrase encodings in the collection. DAUGHTER: D (dah-dit-dit), A (dit-dah), U (dit-dit-dah), G (dah-dah-dit), H (dit-dit-dit-dit), T (dah), E (dit), R (dit-dah-dit) — eight varied characters where the four-dot H appears in the middle, giving the word an unexpected light center.
Most common use cases
- Mother-daughter pair gift
- Mother's Day piece acknowledging resemblance
- Coming-of-age gift from mother to daughter
- Grandmother-granddaughter legacy piece
Letter-by-letter breakdown
Here is “Like Mother, Like Daughter” spelled out one character at a time, so you can copy it by hand, check a tattoo stencil, or space the beads on a bracelet correctly:
| Letter | Morse |
|---|---|
| L | .-.. |
| I | .. |
| K | -.- |
| E | . |
| ␣ | / |
| M | -- |
| O | --- |
| T | - |
| H | .... |
| E | . |
| R | .-. |
| ␣ | / |
| L | .-.. |
| I | .. |
| K | -.- |
| E | . |
| ␣ | / |
| D | -.. |
| A | .- |
| U | ..- |
| G | --. |
| H | .... |
| T | - |
| E | . |
| R | .-. |
A single space between letters and a slash (/) between words keeps the pattern readable — the most common mistake in engraved and tattooed morse is running the letters together with no gaps.
MOTHER stacks six dashes then six dots
The middle word carries the phrase’s most extreme swing. MOTHER opens with M, O, and T — two dashes, three, then one — and those six long beats run straight together with no dot to break them. Then it flips: H brings four dots, E a lone dot, then R opening on a further one — six short beats in a row before the R’s dash lands. So a single word climbs to its heaviest possible run and drops to its lightest, back to back. On a wide cuff that makes MOTHER the visual pivot of the whole piece, a dark bar of long beads giving way to a pale band of small ones. A designer centering the layout puts this word where the eye naturally lands.
DAUGHTER pools five dots at the G-H seam
The closing word hides its calmest stretch in the middle. G ends on a dot and H is four more, so five short beats gather where the two letters meet — the longest smooth run in DAUGHTER and a quiet center for an otherwise mixed word. Around it the beats keep alternating: the D and A and U up front trade short for long, and the T, E, R at the tail scatter their weight. That five-dot pool gives a maker a natural rest point two-thirds of the way along the widest word in the phrase — a good place to seat a birthstone on a mother-daughter cuff, right inside the word that names the daughter.
Crowd the seams and C, N, and F slip in
This phrase sets traps in three of its words. In either LIKE, the K and E together read -.-., a C. In DAUGHTER the T and its E collapse to -., an N, and the E and closing R blur to ..-., an F — the same F that hides at the end of MOTHER, where its E and R meet. Across a phrase this long the disguises add up, which is exactly why a jeweler keeps the letter-gaps wide and even on a wide cuff. Honor every pause and the four words read plainly, with no phantom letters bridging the seams.
Buy "Like Mother, Like Daughter" in morse
Custom-phrase morse jewelry and prints from independent sellers. Send them this page and they'll match the layout above.
Turn it into something physical
This phrase fits a range of keepsake formats:
- Bracelet mockup — if the phrase is short enough (54 morse symbols here).
- Necklace mockup — best for longer phrases.
- Ring design — only works if the phrase is under about 10 morse symbols.
- Tattoo designer — exports an SVG in three layouts and three weights.
Related phrases
- Family — ..-. .- -- .. .-.. -.--
- Love — .-.. --- ...- .
- Forever — ..-. --- .-. . ...- . .-.
- Little Sister — .-.. .. - - .-.. . / ... .. ... - . .-.
- Twin Souls — - .-- .. -. / ... --- ..- .-.. ...
- Kindred Spirits — -.- .. -. -.. .-. . -.. / ... .--. .. .-…
Frequently asked questions
What is "Like Mother, Like Daughter" in morse code?
"Like Mother, Like Daughter" in international morse code is .-.. .. -.- . / -- --- - .... . .-. / .-.. .. -.- . / -.. .- ..- --. .... - . .-..
How long does this phrase take to send?
At 15 WPM this phrase takes about 6.5 seconds to transmit. You can hear it at any speed between 5 and 40 WPM by pressing Play above.
Can I put "Like Mother, Like Daughter" on a bracelet or necklace?
Yes — use our bracelet or necklace mockup tool to preview how it will look as beads, then screenshot and send to a jeweler or an Etsy seller specializing in morse pieces.
Which word in the phrase carries the heaviest run?
MOTHER DOES. It opens with M, O, and T, whose long beats run six deep together — the biggest stack of dashes anywhere in the phrase. Then the same word drops to a six-dot run through H, E, and R. That swing from heaviest to lightest inside one word makes MOTHER the natural centerpiece of a wide cuff layout.
Where is the smoothest stretch to tap in this phrase?
THE G-H JOIN inside DAUGHTER. G ends on a dot and H adds four, so five short beats pool together with no break — the calmest run in the closing word. It sits about two-thirds of the way through DAUGHTER, a steady spot to settle your timing before the mixed T-E-R ending arrives.
Does the phrase have hidden letters at the seams?
SEVERAL, ACROSS THREE words. Either LIKE can fake a C where its K meets the E; DAUGHTER can fake an N at the T-E join and an F at the E-R join; and MOTHER hides that same F where its own E and R meet. On a long phrase these add up, so even letter-spacing matters most here of all. Proper gaps clear every one.