'''Variation Selectors''' is the block name of a [[Unicode block|Unicode code point block]] containing 16 [[Variation Selectors|variation selectors]]. Each variation selector is used to specify a specific glyph variant for a preceding character. They are currently used to specify standardized variation sequences for mathematical symbols, [[emoji]] symbols, [['Phags-pa script|'Phags-pa]] letters, and CJK unified ideographs corresponding to [[CJK compatibility ideographs]]. At present only standardized variation sequences with VS1, VS2, VS3, VS15 and VS16 have been defined; <abbr title="text">VS15</abbr> and <abbr title="emoji">VS16</abbr> are reserved to request that a character should be displayed as text or as an [[emoji]] respectively.<ref>{{Cite web | title=StandardizedVariants.txt | url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/StandardizedVariants.txt | publisher=Unicode Consortium | date=2015-11-20 | access-date=2016-08-28 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=Emoji Variation Sequences | url=http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Emoji_Variation_Sequences | publisher=Unicode Consortium | date=2020-09-18 | access-date=2020-11-18 }}</ref>
These combining characters are named ''variation selector-1'' (for U+FE00) through to ''variation selector-16'' (U+FE0F), and are abbreviated VS1 – VS16. Each applies to the immediately preceding character.
