Abstract: The invention relates to a liquid crystalline medium based on a mixture of polar compounds of positive dielectric anisotropy, characterized in that it contains one or more fluorinated terphenyls having the formula I ##STR1## and one or more compounds of the formula II ##STR2## wherein R and R' are each independently an alkyl or alkenyl radical having up to 12 C atoms, optionally substituted by halogen, at least one CH.sub.2 group optionally independently replaced by --O--, --CO--O-- or --O--CO-- in such a manner that oxygen atoms are not linked directly to one another,X and X' are each independently of one another F, Cl, CF.sub.3, OCF.sub.3 or OCHF.sub.2, andL.sup.1 and L.sup.2 are each independently of one another H or F.