One option is recode from car
library(car)
recode(x, "c('A', 'B')='A+B';c('D', 'E') = 'D+E'")
#[1] A+B A+B A+B C D+E D+E A+B D+E C
#Levels: A+B C D+E
It should also work with dplyr
library(dplyr)
df %>%
mutate(x= recode(x, "c('A', 'B')='A+B';c('D', 'E') = 'D+E'"))
# x
#1 A+B
#2 A+B
#3 A+B
#4 C
#5 D+E
#6 D+E
#7 A+B
#8 D+E
#9 C
data
df <- data.frame(x)