With the third series of Little Britain just launched in the US, perplexed American viewers can turn to a dictionary of British slang to work out exactly what is being said.

The British American dictionary on BBC America`s website can also come in handy for troublesome phrases in Footballers Wives - which has proved a hit Stateside - such as “slapper” and “daft cow”.

The lexicon is one of the most popular parts of the site, regularly scoring in the top ten in terms of hits, according to BBC America spokeswoman Amy Mulcair.

“It`s a bit of fun, but it`s also genuinely there if viewers want to look up things,” she said.

“An American who`s never been to Europe might have watched a lot of British programming and there`s different vocabulary and different accents - something else to turn their ear to.”

The commercial channel transmits a range of British shows including Ramsay`s Kitchen Nightmares, Bad Girls, What Not to Wear and BBC News to 46 million homes across the States.

The dictionary, which has built up more than 2000 pieces of slang, includes contributions submitted by the public.

It covers a number of topics, from alcohol and food to illnesses and insults and differentiates between the use of language in different parts of Britain and Ireland.

It enables Americans to find out what people are talking about when they say they are “legless” or “skint”, on a “booze cruise” or when they label someone as an “anorak”.

The site also includes Irish words and phrases such as “craic”, “the black stuff” and “eejit”.