= Combining character
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= Combining mark
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A <combining character> is an encoded <text character> intended to combine with another character in its written presentation. A familiar case is `U+0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT`: the sequence `e` followed by that <code point> represents an accented letter without requiring a separate precomposed code point for the whole letter.<Characters and Combining Marks by the Unicode Consortium>[Which character should I use for a given diacritical mark?]{ref}
The same acute-accent <code point> can mark a distinct letter, stress or tone in different languages. Those functions do not require a different encoding of the accent in every language. <Text shaping> determines how the selected <glyph> is attached to the base shape, and <glyph positioning> can place additional marks relative to earlier marks.
A combining sequence and a <grapheme cluster> are related but distinct notions. The default segmentation rules determine which <code points> an editor treats as one unit. <Unicode normalization> addresses equivalence between encodings, such as a precomposed accented letter and a base-plus-accent sequence; it does not perform the geometric placement of their <glyphs>.
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