The paper shows that the behaviour of dielectric permittivity (epsilon) and its changes in a strong electric field (nonlinear dielectric effect - NDE) can be described in the way analogous to that applied in critical binary solutions. Basing on measurement in 4,4-n-hexylcyanobiphenyl (6CB) and 4,4-n-tetracyanobiphenyl (4CB) it was possible to portray the temperature behavior of epsilon and NDE from T-C up to T-C + 50 K. In the case of 4CB the satisfied description was possible despite the fact that the sample crystallises before reaching the clearing point. NDE tests was conducted for the measurement frequency f = 70 kHz, what allowed to avoid the influence of relaxation processes on results.