We investigate the ground-state properties of the spin-1/2 XXZ model with power-law-decaying (1/r α ) interactions, describing spins interacting with long-range transverse (XX) ferromagnetic interactions and longitudinal (Z) antiferromagnetic interactions, or hardcore bosons with long-range repulsion and hopping. The long-range nature of the couplings allows us to quantitatively study the spectral, correlation and entanglement properties of the system by making use of linear spin-wave theory, supplemented with density-matrix renormalization group in one-dimensional systems. Our most important prediction is the existence of three distinct coupling regimes, depending on the decay exponent α and number of dimensions d: 1) a short-range regime for α > d + σc (where σc = 1 in the gapped Néel antiferromagnetic phase exhibited by the XXZ model, and σc = 2 in the gapless XY ferromagnetic phase), sharing the same properties as those of finite-range interactions (α = ∞); 2) a long-range regime α < d, sharing the same properties as those of the infinite-range interactions (α = 0) in the thermodynamic limit; and 3) a most intriguing medium-range regime for d < α < d + σc, continuously interpolating between the finite-range and the infinite-range behavior. The latter regime is characterized by elementary excitations with a long-wavelength dispersion relation ω ≈ ∆g + ck z in the gapped phase, and ω ∼ k z in the gapless phase, exhibiting a continuously varying dynamical exponent z = (α − d)/σc. In the gapless phase of the model the z exponent is found to control the scaling of fluctuations, the decay of correlations, and a universal sub-dominant term in the entanglement entropy, leading to a very rich palette of behaviors for ground-state quantum correlations beyond what is known for finite-range interactions.