This thesis describes an extensive norming study of Spanish verbs and an online language \nprocessing study investigating whether bilingual lexical processing is nonselective (both \nlanguages are activated) when only one language is required for use. To study bilingual lexical \nprocessing, researchers have relied upon words of shared orthography and semantics between \nlanguages in order to determine how word form and meaning impact bilingual word recognition. \nHowever, because these words have been of exact form overlap through cognates (words sharing \nform and meaning between languages: banana in Spanish and English) and homographs (words \nsharing form yet differing in meaning: the English adjective red meaning net in Spanish), it has \nbeen difficult to distinguish which language(s) participants engage during processing tasks. The \npresent research addresses this issue by investigating cognate and homographic verbs between \nlanguages. Because differences in verb morphology between Spanish and English never result in \nexact form overlap between languages (e.g., assist and asistir), interlingual cognate and \nhomographic verbs between Spanish and English should ensure that participants operate in one \nspecific language. Hence, utilizing verbs provides an original testing ground to determine if the \nbilingual language processor is nonselective when operating in one language and to what degree \nthe access depends on form and meaning overlap between languages. An extensive norming \nstudy of Spanish verbs produced a reliable list of cognates and homographs with English. The \nonline research indicated that bilingual lexical access is guided not only by form and meaning, \nbut also by how the frequency of a word???s meanings from both languages attach to a single form. \nThese results mirror recent discoveries in ambiguity research in monolinguals (e.g., Rodd, Gaskell and Marslen-Wilson, 2002), the implications of which suggest an overriding mechanism \nof language processing???not just a theory of bilingual lexical processing.