If you intend the enum to allow for OR'd combinations as you imply, you should decorate the enum with the Flags[^] attribute. This attribute indicates that an enumeration can be treated as a bit field; that is, a set of flags. Bit fields can be combined using a bitwise OR operation, whereas enumerated constants cannot. Bit fields are generally used for lists of elements that might occur in combination, whereas enumeration constants are generally used for lists of mutually exclusive elements. Therefore, bit fields are designed to be combined with a bitwise OR operation to generate unnamed values, whereas enumerated constants are not. Languages vary in their use of bit fields compared to enumeration constants. Your code will compile without the Flags attribute, but it helps the compiler, the runtime and other developers understand how the enum is supposed to be used.