Novel liquid-crystal compounds which have an especially large value of DELTA epsilon and a satisfactory compatibility with other liquid-crystal compounds and show a nematic phase in a wide temperature range without detriment to the properties inherent in liquid-crystal fluorine compounds; a liquid-crystal composition containing the same; and a liquid-crystal display element prepared by using the composition. The compounds include phenyl polyhaloalkyl ether derivatives represented by general formula (1): wherein X and X each independently represents 1,2-ethylene, 1,4-butylene, or a covalent bond, provided that not both represent covalent bonds; R represents C1-20 alkyl in which at least one methylene group may have been replaced with oxygen, vinylene, or ethynylene; Y represents -OCF2CFH-(CF2)n-F (wherein n is 0, 1, 2, or 3) or -OCF2Cl; the rings A and A each independently represents 1,4-cyclohexylene, 1,4-cyclohexenylene, or 1,4-phenylene and A represents 1,4-phenylene, provided that at least one carbon atom in each ring may have been replaced with oxygen or nitrogen and at least one hydrogen atom present on each ring may have been replaced with fluorine or chlorine; m is 0 or 1; and each constituent element of the molecule may contain at least one of the isotopes thereof.