A liquid crystal display (LCD) includes: a display panel including a plurality of pixels connected to a gate line, a data line, and a reference voltage line to which a common voltage is applied; a data driver connected to the data line and configured to apply a data voltage to the data line; a gate driver connected to the gate line and configured to apply a gate voltage to the gate line; a reference voltage generator connected to the reference voltage line and configured to apply a reference voltage to the reference voltage line; and a signal controller configured to control the data driver, the gate driver, and the reference voltage generator, and output a signal to the reference voltage generator for changing the reference voltage applied to the pixels, wherein the reference voltage is changed according to a gray-level value of an image data.