LDS
LDS (adjective) means belonging to or connected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the religious denomination whose members are commonly called Mormons. Example: “She grew up in an LDS family in southern Idaho.”
How to Use LDS
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishLDS refers to the Mormon church and its members.
Used both by members and by outsiders. The church itself asks that its full name be used where possible and discourages Mormon and Mormon Church as substitutes, though those remain common in general usage. Note the lower-case d and the hyphen in Latter-day.
LDS is not LSD. The letters stand for Latter-day Saints, and the phrase is always written with a hyphen and a small d.
Trace the full origin ↓Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
She grew up in an _____ family in southern Idaho.
Etymology
An initialism of Latter-day Saints.
Rhymes for LDS
See all rhymes for LDS →Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between LDS and Mormon?
They point to the same faith. LDS is the abbreviation of the church's own name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Mormon is a nickname taken from the Book of Mormon. The church has asked people to use its full name or Latter-day Saints rather than Mormon.
Are all Latter-day Saints part of the same church?
No. The great majority belong to the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but several smaller denominations trace to the same nineteenth-century movement, the largest being the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church.
Why is it written Latter-day and not Latter-Day?
The church's own style hyphenates the phrase and keeps day in lower case. Latter-day Saints is the correct form, and the abbreviation LDS follows from it.