The purpose of this paper is to deepen the study of the Prüfer -multiplication domains, where is a semistar operation. For this reason, we introduce the -domains, as a natural extension of the v-domains. We investigate their close relation with the Prüfer -multiplication domains. In particular, we obtain a characterization of Prüfer -multiplication domains in terms of -domains satisfying a variety of coherent-like conditions. We extend to the semistar setting the notion of H-domain introduced by Glaz and Vasconcelos and we show, among the other results that, in the class of the H( )-domains, the Prüfer -multiplication domains coincide with the -domains.