# Multiple swallows (dry swallow / clearing swallow): plain-language definition

Canonical: [https://followyourswallow.com/glossary/multiple-swallows](https://followyourswallow.com/glossary/multiple-swallows)

Swallowing again after a bite or sip, with no new food, to help clear anything left behind in the throat.

## In plain language

A dry swallow is a swallow done with an empty mouth. When one is added right after a bite or sip, the idea is to move along anything still sitting in the throat. Research on swallowing uses the term "clearing swallow" for exactly this: published work in a peer-reviewed journal describes clearing swallows of pharyngeal residue that happen without the addition of new material from the mouth.

The thing being cleared is called residue — food or liquid that stays behind in the small pockets of the throat after the swallow finishes, rather than passing on to the esophagus. Adding a second (or third) swallow is one of the simplest approaches a clinician can try, which is part of why it is common.

One thing that confuses people: the same words can appear in a report as an observation rather than as a plan. "Multiple swallows" may describe something the clinician saw — that a person needed more than one swallow to get a single bite down — or it may describe a strategy being recommended. If it is not clear which one your report means, that is a good, specific question to ask the person who wrote it.


## Why a clinician looks at this

An SLP pays attention to what is left behind after the swallow, not just what happens during it, because residue is part of how efficient a swallow is. If extra swallows show up in your report, ask your SLP which meaning applies to you. Your SLP may teach this as a strategy — how many extra swallows, and with what — rather than it being something to start on your own.

## Sources

- [PMC: The Risk of Penetration-Aspiration Related to Residue in the Pharynx](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7893525/)


Source checked: 2026-08-07

Clinical review: SLP review in progress

## Safety

This is a general definition, not an interpretation of a person's report. Ask the clinician who performed the study what the term means for that person.