These six words overlap, but they draw attention to different things: an inner experience, an attitude, or an impression.
- Feeling often describes your personal experience of an emotion: “I couldn’t hide my feelings of disappointment.” It can also describe a physical sensation: “I have a tingling feeling in my hand.”
- Emotion names a state such as happiness, sadness, anger, or fear. It often has an identifiable cause: “His voice shook with emotion when he thanked us.” It overlaps strongly with emotional uses of feeling; there is no strict everyday boundary.
- Mood describes your general emotional state over a period of time. It may have no obvious cause: “I’ve been in a cheerful mood all morning.” It usually lasts longer than a brief emotional reaction.
- Sentiment often means an opinion or attitude influenced by feelings, especially one shared by a group: “Public sentiment has turned against the proposal.” It sounds more formal than simply saying what people think.
- Vibe is informal. It describes the atmosphere or impression you get from someone or somewhere: “The new café has a relaxed vibe.”
- Aura describes a quality that seems to surround a person or place: “She has an aura of quiet authority.” It often sounds more literary than vibe.
A room can have both a friendly vibe and an aura of elegance. The choice changes the emphasis, not necessarily the situation.