感じ、感覚、気持ち、気分

[Jaydent1]

So I have seen all 4 of these in use often, and I have generally just attributed words like 'feel/feeling, sense/sensory' to them. I am still having trouble with the precise differences between each.

What's the specific meaning/usage for each of these words?

 

[SakuraFujiko]

感じ - most often used in regards of "feeling" and the one I myself use the most often to express that I have a good or maybe strange feeling about something, but also to express that a sweater has a good feeling on your skin, and so on
感覚 - sensory perception/ sensation that can also be used as "intuition" and not as a physical feeling
気持ち - used to desribe a situation related feeling, like "feeling good/comfortable" (気持ちいい) or that you don't feel well (気持ち悪い) because of maybe something bad you ate
気分 - is used mainly to express your mood or how you feel physically (eg. 気分はどうですか。)

 

[Jaydent1]

Could I also use 感覚 like: 両手は感覚がない。As in a physical sensation/lack of sensory.

 

[SakuraFujiko]

Yes, you most definitely could (^_^)

 

[Toritoribe]

Only people can have 感覚, 気持ち or 気分 (although it's sometime used for animate objects such like animals), whereas 感じ can be used for inanimate things, e.g. この場所は嫌な感じがする/嫌な感じを持っている. "Atmosphere" might be close in this usage.