I’d wager that most people would assume “largest city” meant “largest city [by population]” because that’s clearly what search results assume. “Largest city in USA” first lists the Wikipedia entry for “List of United States Cities by Population” [0], with the next bunch of results assuming the same thing. For me, the 9th result is the first to mention land area.[1]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities...

[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-city-rankings/largest-c...