You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query>
    <search>
      <p ns="0" title="Purpose and Meaning" snippet="...es to preventing others from experiencing the same feeling and giving more &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; to the loved ones we lost.&#10;[[Purpose and &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;Meaning&lt;/span&gt;]] is a component of [[Personal Well-Being|personal well-being]].&#10;" size="537" wordcount="86" timestamp="2016-04-09T15:45:18Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>