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Variation Selectors is the block name of a Unicode code point block containing 16 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 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; VS15 and VS16 are reserved to request that a character should be displayed as text or as an emoji respectively.
These combining characters are named variation selector-1 through to variation selector-16 , and are abbreviated VS1 – VS16. Each applies to the immediately preceding character.
As of Unicode 13.0:
This list is continued in the Variation Selectors Supplement.