I mean, even within a single technique you can have a single meaning or multiple meanings. Some backfist techniques can resemble the Taekwondo outside block, so much that the same motion can be used for either.
Similarly, a knife-hand block can lead to a grab, be chained into a chop or a palm strike, or you can block with one hand while striking with the other. It can be used to push a straight punch away from you or to push a cross punch further across your body (i.e. right block pushes the opponent's left hand away, vs. right block pushing opponent's right arm across your body). Each of these applications would lead to various follow-ups.
At my Taekwondo school, we learn rote patterns, but we also train freestyle technique combinations to allow our students to chain different things together. Similarly, in my Hapkido class, at white belt we learn the proper order of techniques in a completely scripted fashion, but as we go up in belts we're supposed to learn how to chain different joint lock concepts together. That way when you throw someone and it doesn't quite work, or maybe they don't land the way you were expecting, you can transition into something else.
For example, we might have a joint lock where you're supposed to use a Figure 4 type lock, if they won't let you bend the arm for the Figure 4 you can transition into an arm bar. Another example is if you throw someone and expect them to land on their stomach, where you would break the wrist using one finishing technique, but they land on their back you have to improvise into another. As a white belt I was usually fairly lost, but as an orange belt I'm starting to get the hang of improvising.
Now, this is someone who doesn't take Karate, but I would imagine it works both ways for the Karate katas as well. There is probably a specific meaning that whoever created the form had in mind, but lots of applications you can get out of it.
