Highly ordered CdS nanostructure arrays were successfully fabricated via a simple two-step metal-organic chemical vapor deposition process. Both stimulated emission and field-emission measurements were carried out in an attempt to understand the correlation between the morphologies, alignments, and emission performances of five ordered CdS nanostructure array types (well-aligned truncated nanocones, nanorods, cleft nanorods, quasi-aligned nanowires, and nanowires). The 1D CdS nanostructures of various types displayed notable differences in stimulated and field-emission performances. The stimulated emission strongly correlated with the structure alignment: the better the alignment, the lower the threshold. Both of the alignments and aspect ratios greatly affected the field-emission properties; the CdS emitters of higher aspect ratio and better alignment exhibited better field-emission performance. Thus the well-aligned CdS nanorod arrays had the lower threshold for stimulated emission, and quasi-aligned nanowire arrays produced the higher field-emission current and possessed the lower turn-on fields.