alzar

To lift or raise — alzar la voz, alzar la mano, alzar los ojos — and, in a stronger sense, to rise up or rebel: el pueblo se alzó contra el gobierno. It also has a specific legal/theft sense (to make off with something) in some regions.

• Alzó la mano para hacer una pregunta. — She raised her hand to ask a question.
• El ejército se alzó contra el gobierno. — The army rose up against the government.
• Alzaron la copa para brindar por los novios. — They raised their glasses to toast the newlyweds.

Treating alzar and levantar as always interchangeable — they overlap heavily for physical lifting, but alzar carries a stronger, more formal or dramatic tone, especially in the 'rise up/rebel' sense, where levantar wouldn't fit as naturally.

Often confused with levantar.

• politics El Alzamiento Nacional — The term used, especially by the Franco regime and its supporters, for the July 1936 military uprising against Spain's Second Republic that triggered the Spanish Civil War — from alzarse ("to rise up"), the reflexive form of alzar.