diff --git a/spacy/gold.pyx b/spacy/gold.pyx
index a20026071..2215984a8 100644
--- a/spacy/gold.pyx
+++ b/spacy/gold.pyx
@@ -155,7 +155,8 @@ def read_json_file(loc, docs_filter=None):
                         if labels[-1].lower() == 'root':
                             labels[-1] = 'ROOT'
                         ner.append(token.get('ner', '-'))
-                        wsd.append(token.get('ssenses', []))
+                        t_wsd = [s.replace('.', '_') for s in token.get('ssenses', [])]
+                        wsd.append(t_wsd)
                     sents.append((
                         (ids, words, tags, heads, labels, ner, wsd),
                         sent.get('brackets', [])))