磁畴是铁磁质的基本组成部分；材料内部拥有均一磁化强度的区域；铁磁质的原子磁矩主要由原子中电子自旋决定；在各磁畴中，原子磁矩的排列各有相互平行的自发倾向，磁矩方向保持一致，因此具有磁性；但是各磁畴的排列方向是混乱的，所以铁磁体在没有被磁化前不显磁性。

磁矩结构与铁磁性物质（例如铁）的磁性行为有关。在其他的材料中，一般并不存在磁畴结构。在居里温度以下，磁畴是自发出现的，并不需要外部磁场的存在。不同磁畴内磁矩的方向不同，在磁畴的边界，磁矩从一个方向连续地过度到另一个方向。磁畴的典型尺寸在10 m

在外磁场的作用下，各磁畴的大小发生变化，自发磁化方向和外磁场方向相同或近似相同的磁畴扩大，方向相反或近似相反的磁畴缩小，以致外磁场方向上的总磁矩跟着外磁场的增强而增加；当外磁场增强到一定程度，所有磁畴的磁矩方向一致，这时达到磁性饱和。

A magnetic domain is a region within a magnetic material in which the magnetization is in a uniform direction. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction. When cooled below a temperature called the Curie temperature, the magnetization of a piece of ferromagnetic material spontaneously divides into many small regions called magnetic domains. The magnetization within each domain points in a uniform direction, but the magnetization of different domains may point in different directions. Magnetic domain structure is responsible for the magnetic behavior of ferromagnetic materials like iron, nickel, cobalt and their alloys, and ferrimagnetic materials like ferrite. This includes the formation of permanent magnets and the attraction of ferromagnetic materials to a magnetic field. The regions separating magnetic domains are called domain walls, where the magnetization rotates coherently from the direction in one domain to that in the next domain. The study of magnetic domains is called micromagnetics.