ICAO Annex 10, NATO adopted
NATO Phonetic Alphabet Reference
The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, the standard set of code words used to spell letters clearly over radio and telephone.
At a glance
Key factsStandard
Letters
26 code words, A to Z
Digits
0 to 9, plus spoken numerals
Adopted
1956, in force since
Where it comes from
The alphabet was developed and tested by the International Civil Aviation Organization in the early 1950s, after separate military and civilian spelling alphabets caused confusion. ICAO ran listening trials across many native languages to choose words that stay distinct even over a poor connection. NATO, the International Telecommunication Union, and the world's aviation and maritime services adopted the same set, which is why it is known interchangeably as the NATO, ICAO, or international phonetic alphabet.
How to use it
Read each character as its code word rather than its letter. To dictate the fictional order code Acme QR-42 you would say Alfa Charlie Mike Echo, Quebec Romeo, dash, Four Two, pausing briefly between groups. Keep the deliberate spellings of Alfa and Juliett, and add a spoken cue such as capital or small when case matters, since the alphabet does not encode it.
This page is a standing summary. For the interactive tool and the full tables, open the nato phonetic alphabet page. The data here is compiled from International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, adopted by ICAO and NATO.