Wave-absorbing materials play a vital role in national defense and people"s livelihood, but traditional wave-absorbing materials are difficult to meet the increasingly complex electromagnetic environment due to their large mass and narrow frequency band. The integration of structural design ideas of wave-absorbing metamaterials with "thin, light, wide and strong" and dynamic tunable and insensitive polarization angles has contributed to the rapid development of the field of electromagnetic wave absorption. In this paper, we firstly clarify the principles and methods of metamaterial wave absorption and the important influence of geometric design on electromagnetic wave absorption performance. Secondly, the development status of wave-absorbing metamaterials in carbon, water, metal and inorganic compound-based material systems is discussed in detail, and the current development trend of active tuning, lightweight and broadband, and multi-band compatibility is indicated as the main line. Finally, the current development bottlenecks and future research directions are summarized, providing ideas for the optimal design of wave-absorbing metamaterials.