An electromagnetic wave absorber is a device that can absorb and annihilate electromagnetic waves, which is widely used in various fields of military, science and technology, and people’s livelihood. Absorbers based on metamaterials have received considerable attention due to their potent ability to absorb electromagnetic waves, ultra-thin characteristics, and design flexibility. In this paper, we design a broadband metamaterial absorber based on metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) structure, and analyze the absorption principle and physical mechanism, and simulate the parameters of the structure. The results show that the metamaterial absorber has an absorption rate higher than 80% for incident light from 490-1790 nm, with an average absorption rate of up to 90% and an optimal operating angle of 30°. In addition, the polarization-dependent tuning can be performed by modifying the symmetry of the cell structure. The proposed broadband metamaterial absorber is well suited for solar photovoltaic, optical communication, filtering and sensing applications.