A liquid crystal display uses back light from lighting devices (111 and 112) for transmission display in dark ambient light, while it uses the reflection from a semitransparent layer (123) provided inside a liquid crystal cell in bright ambient light. A phase plate is provided between the lighting devices and polarizer plate (108) so that the direction of polarization of the light from the lighting devices may coincide with that of the reflection from the semitransparent layer in dark ambient light.
