Mini biographies of late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger and “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin have been included in the latest edition of the Collins Concise English Dictionary.
They are joined by entries describing top sportsmen Lewis Hamilton and Joe Calzaghe, and comedian Russell Brand, among others.
Brand finds his entry in the word list sandwiched between that of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi and the definition of Branade a provincial dish of salt cod pureed with olive oil and milk.
This latest edition is the only dictionary in concise format to include encyclopaedic entries, and is available for the first time online.
A spokesman said: “We are the only dictionary publisher to include biographical entries, but we cannot put in every celebrity or sportsman or politician; they have to be very well known.
New definitions in the word list include carbon-neutral and green tax, e-card, norovirus, non-dom and Skype.
Collins lexicographers used the Bank of English, a vast database of real-life examples of English in use which grows by 35 million words every month, to compile the dictionary.