A liquid crystal display comprising a liquid crystal cell having a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer which is sandwiched between the pair of substrates and oriented substantially in parallel with the substrates in regions near the substrates in the absence of an applied voltage, a first polarizing plate arranged outside one of the substrates of the liquid crystal cell, a second polarizing plate arranged outside the other of the substrates of the liquid crystal cell, and at least one retardation plate placed between either one of the substrates and the polarizing plate arranged outside the substrate, in which at least one retardation plate has a negative uniaxiality and an optical axis in a plane direction thereof, and a Nz coefficient is from -1.0 to +0.2.