In this study, the authors present three different metamaterial absorbers (MMAs) namely, T, split-I (SI) and split-Jerusalem cross (SJC) with different dimensions and geometrical configurations. The absorption rates of T-, SI- and SJC-shaped absorbers are studied at microwave frequencies. T-shaped absorber demonstrates perfect absorption at 10.19 GHz, making it suitable for single band operation, whereas SI-shaped absorber exhibits two perfect absorption peaks at 9.32 and 10.75 GHz finding its application in dual band operation. However, novel SJC-shaped absorber demonstrates multiple absorption peaks at 9.92, 10.42, 10.93, 11.75 and 13.25 GHz with absorption of 99.5, 91, 99.9, 91.8 and 99.6%, respectively, making it suitable for X- and Ku-band operations. The proposed MMAs have a thickness of around 0.8 mm (i.e. <λ/37) with respect to the lowest frequency of operation. Furthermore, the absorbers are analysed for different angles of polarisation and incidence for transverse electric polarised wave with a step size of 15°. The proposed absorbers have been fabricated and experimentally demonstrated at X-band verifying the results obtained from simulations and implementing an equivalent circuit method. Further, SJC-shaped absorber is demonstrated for multi-and wide-band terahertz applications exhibiting four perfect absorption peaks at 2.76, 2.89, 3.02 and 3.31 THz.