"Broad" is a context-dependent word. It describes the size of an object along one axis or direction. But which direction depends on what you're looking at. Many things have an implicit ordering of dimensions.
- A river is long, from its source to the sea. But it can be narrow or broad depending on the distance from one shore to the opposite shore.
- Similarly, a street is only broad from one sidewalk to the other sidewalk. You cannot say it is broad along the axis of travel.
- A table is only broad if its shortest side is considered wide for normal tables. If the longer side is considered longer than normal then you'd say it's "long". A square table can never be long.
- When talking about something with only one dimension, it is common to use a word like "broad". Example, broad-spectrum antibiotics target a wide range of bacteria. Narrow spectrum antibiotics target a smaller range.
- Some things have a definite "top/bottom" or "side" and those would be considered broad if the "side" dimension is long. Example, a book: the direction of the text tells you which way is "up"; the book can be tall or short independently of how broad/wide it is.
When it comes to area, calling an area "broad" really depends on your perspective. For arbitrary shapes in an abstract context, it might be acceptable to call something "broad" if it the side you are facing is long. But in that case you would need to, eg, explicitly label the axes "breadth" and "depth" or something. And it would be very arbitrary. Naturally speaking, words like long, short, tall, big, small, broad, narrow, etc, are highly dependent on the context. A pencil is "long" if it is longer than your other pencils or longer than an average pencil. But a short extension cord will still be much longer than any pencil. A broad sheet of paper will still fit quite easily on a narrow table.