Polycrystalline or multicrystalline materials, or polycrystals are solids that are composed of many crystallites of varying size and orientation. Crystallites are also referred to as grains. They are small or even microscopic crystals and form during the cooling of many materials. Their orientation can be random with no preferred direction, called random texture, or directed, possibly due to growth and processing conditions. Fiber texture is an example of the latter. The areas where crystallite grains meet are known as grain boundaries.